Here are the headlines from Mondoweiss for 09/22/2010:
Port Townsend co-op rejects boycott on a technicality
Sep 22, 2010 07:01 am | Adam Horowitz The following update was just sent out by Jefferson County Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: Following the intervention of the Israeli Consulate and a national lobbying group, the Port Townsend Food Coop Board of Directors decided to reject a proposal to boycott Israeli products on Tuesday night. A similar proposal had been passed at the Olympia Food Co-op on July 16, the first of its kind to pass in the country. “This kind of interference by the Israeli government and a national organization show how important boycotts are to Israel,” said Anna-Marie Murano, Olympia Food Co-op member, “Boycott supporters are telling Israel that it will not benefit from the ongoing oppression of Palestinians.” In July, a group of Port Townsend Co-op member-owners presented a proposal to the board, asking that the store pull Israeli products from its shelves until Israel complies with U.N. decisions regarding the occupied territories, lifts the siege on Gaza, ends its hafrada (apartheid) policies against Palestinians, and recognizes the refugees’ right of return. Over 350 members signed a petition supporting the boycott. The meeting, held at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, was attended by approximately 120 people and at times very emotional. “In 5, 10, or 15 years, when the full impact of what happens in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Israel becomes as known to the world as earlier crimes, I want to be able to look my daughter in the eye and say we did everything we could to stop the killing,” stated boycott supporter Dena Shunra, drawing on her family’s World War II experience and placing the boycott proposal in a historical context. The reason stated for rejection of the proposal was that “the boycott proposal is inconsistent with the [Co‑op’s] boycott policy.” Board president Sam Gibboney said that there is nothing in the boycott policy that permits the boycotting of a country. The board’s vote was 4 to 2 against the proposal. The boycott proposal generated much needed discussion about Palestinian human rights, which opponents have not succeeded to silence. “Our anguish here is just a fraction of what people in Gaza experience”, said Kit Kittredge of Quilcene, WA, a boycott supporter who has visited the Gaza Strip several times. Boycott supporters are confident that the momentum will continue, Palestine is now ‘on the map’, and people will continue to educate themselves about the conflict, support Palestinian human rights, and organize support for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement. 
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Despite protests, Harvard to honor Peretz with research fund in his name
Sep 21, 2010 11:12 pm | Abdelnasser Rashid and Sam Sternin Statement on Committee on Degrees in Social Studies’ Decision to Honor Martin Peretz
21.00 EST, Tuesday September 21st, 2010.
We have received word that Harvard’s Standing Committee on Social Studies has finally decided to go ahead with plans to honor Martin Peretz despite his long public record of racist statements by creating a $650,000 research fund in his name. The decision to honor Peretz despite his legacy of bigotry will be remembered as one of the most shameful in the history of Harvard University.
Against a backdrop of widespread opposition to honoring Peretz amongst faculty, students, alumni, staff, and other members of the Harvard community, the Committee also appears to have ‘demoted’ Peretz from his speaking role at the Saturday’s 50th anniversary celebration of Social Studies, but he continues to be listed by name on the program as a person to be honored.
We do not consider this matter settled. We call upon President Drew Gilpin Faust, who has yet to find time in her schedule to meet with Muslim students, to reverse this decision and send a strong signal that Harvard is not for sale to bigotry. That was true in 2004, when Harvard investigated and was on the verge of rejecting the $1.5 million donation of Shaykh Zayed al-Nahyan of the UAE (he technically asked for the funds back), and it should have been true today.
We also call upon the donors behind this fund—who apparently increased their contributions as a means to pressure Harvard into disregarding Peretz’s racism—to publicly repudiate Peretz and his legacy of bigotry. If public figures such as Al Gore, Amy Gutmann, Abigail Thernstrom, Jamie Gorelick, David Ignatius, Tom Williamson, and Juan Carlos Zarate feel that this bigot is worthy of praise, then the crisis of publicly acceptable racism against Muslims in the United States is even worse than it seems today.
Some of Peretz’s defenders have claimed that he has repented for his statements. Peretz’s purported apologies for a few recent remarks do not address his 25-year record of racism against African Americans, Latinos, Arabs, and Muslims. The idea that, having belatedly apologized in the face of massive media pressure, he is suddenly a figure worth honoring (selected over dozens of other Social Studies luminaries) is absurd.
Others have argued that not honoring Peretz would be a violation of academic freedom. This is also nonsense – no one is proposing that Peretz be banned from voicing his noxious views on campus. While free speech is a right (something Peretz apparently forgot when it comes to Muslims), being honored by a university is not.
Some have tried to focus on Peretz’s role as a teacher – but this cannot be separated from his public racist stances. As for Peretz himself, if he truly wishes to atone for his actions, he should concede that he does not deserve to be honored and ask that the fund be withdrawn or re-named.
However Peretz and his friends respond, the ultimate responsibility remains with Harvard. It seems that for now, a little over $650,000 has been enough to buy a cloak of respectability. With Martin Peretz's reputation in tatters, that Harvard cloak -- and along with it the reputation of both Social Studies and the university -- is itself besmirched. The more than 550 Harvard and Social Studies alumni, students, faculty and supporters who have signed the petition against honoring Peretz in the space of five days will not be celebrating this Saturday at the Social Studies 50th anniversary: but we will continue to grow in numbers and organize.
On behalf of concerned Harvard students,
Abdelnasser Rashid (Social Studies ’11)
On behalf of concerned Harvard alumni,
Sam Sternin (Social Studies ’01)
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Celebrity support for cultural boycott is getting attention
Sep 21, 2010 10:57 pm | Adam Horowitz 
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For Thomas it was time to go, but for Peretz it’s a free ride
Sep 21, 2010 02:21 pm | Adam Horowitz This Marty Peretz controversy is really good for pointing out double standards, isn't it? Check out these editorials from the Boston Globe: Helen Thomas: Bizarre end to a long career: Helen Thomas, the longest-serving member of the White House press corps, retired abruptly but wisely yesterday after causing an uproar with her bizarre, offensive comments about Israel. . . Thomas broke new ground for women in journalism, has been a model of longevity, and was, until now, an object of great affection in political and media circles. But to treat Thomas as a Washington institution, rather than as just another reporter, required everyone involved to overlook some unprofessional conduct on Thomas’s part. Thomas has now apologized for her comments, but they remain a sad coda for a groundbreaking career.
Marty Peretz: Not the sum of his sound bites: IF HARVARD University were honoring someone who declared that “Jewish life is cheap,’’ one of the first voices to rise in indignation would surely be that of Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic. For the better part of four decades, Peretz and his magazine have policed the dialogue surrounding the Middle East with a sharp eye for anti-Semitism and double standards. But he’s also flung around some stereotypes of his own. . . Peretz, like some others who’ve been castigated for intolerant views, is more than the sum of his sound bites. He purchased The New Republic at a low ebb in its fortunes and made it a force for thoughtful, centrist debate. Through his magazine, Peretz has been a defender of some of the most important American values, including free speech and (in most cases) tolerance. His support for Israel is heartfelt and intense. If it sometimes leads him to hyperbole and denunciation of Israel’s critics, others are free to disagree or ignore him. Despite his sometimes-offensive comments, he should not be treated like a pariah. There is entirely too much intolerance in America today. Martin Peretz should be regarded in the full context of his career, and he should extend the same courtesy to others.
Maybe the Globe would have gone easier on Thomas if she had a lifetime of offensive comments, and not just one slip. 
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Our cross to bear
Sep 21, 2010 01:53 pm | Matthew Phillips  Readers may remember the Jewish novelist Michael Chabon’s strange article in the New York Times days after the Mavi Marmara debacle. In his op-ed, “Chosen, but Not Special”, Chabon claims that recent evidence of Israeli “stupidity”, namely the massacre of civilians in international waters, should put an end to the illusion that Jews are somehow more enlightened than others; an illusion which, Chabon hastens to add, has done the Jewish state no favors. Paradoxically, Chabon points out, Israel claims to be a “light unto nations”, yet protests loudly against those who hold Israel to a “higher standard” than other states. Of course, Chabon provides no evidence of those who hold Israel to a “higher standard”, as virtually all diplomatic reaction to the Mavi Marmara affair bitterly criticized Israel’s behavior not because it fell short of some lofty theological ideal, but because it was an egregious violation of international law. Certainly a comparative framework was used to highlight Israeli lawlessness, but for most commentators it was the real-world precedent of Somali piracy that proved germane. I do not recall anyone arguing that Jewish “chosenness” was the proper standard by which Israeli behavior should be judged.
Nevertheless, Chabon’s argument that Jews should basically eschew the idea of their essential uniqueness caused predictable reaction. Todd Gitlin and Liel Leibovitz, authors of the new book The Chosen Peoples: America, Israel, and the Ordeals of Divine Election , responded in the online magazine Tablet with an article entitled “the Centrality of Jewish Chosenness”. Gitlin and Leibovitz argue that a renunciation of Jewish chosenness is not only implausible, but also undesirable. To them, chosenness is “foundational”; for who are the Jews, they ask, “if not people that believe that their ancestor [Abraham] was singled out…by God?” Indeed, Jewish chosenness is not simply a central aspect of Judaism, but to Gitlin and Leibovitz, its rasion d’etre: “In a way”, Gitlin and Leibovitz write, “the Jewish people have invented the idea of chosenness, but in truth, chosenness has invented the idea of the Jewish people. Such is Judaism’s wonderfully inverted logic: First comes redemption, only then reasons.” Whatever the theological merits of Gitlin and Leibovitz’ argument, a reader of their article might be somewhat puzzled by the subtitle of their new book. “America, Israel and the Ordeals of Divine Election”? How can the “rich and strange idea” of chosenness, as the author’s call it in their Tablet article, be so problematic? Certainly it is seductive enough to be embraced by two admittedly secular writers like Gitlin and Leibovitz. The “ordeal”, then, must be the experience of the other side—those who have had the unlucky fortune, from the Bible onwards, to get in the way of the both the chosen people and the “almost chosen people”, as Abraham Lincoln famously labeled the Americans. Yet the reader of The Chosen Peoples quickly discovers that the “ordeal” is, in fact, essentially our own. True, Gitlin and Leibovitz do discuss the unfortunate effect the idea of “divine election” has had on the lives of the “unchosen”. And they do set up the useful, if not exactly novel, analogy between American treatment of the indigenous population and Israeli behavior in the Occupied Territories. But Gitlin and Leibovitz are careful not to push things too far, and eagerly mitigate whatever negative conclusions the reader might come to about the idea of “divine election”. Thus, for those of us who had the good fortune to learn about the postmodern concept of the “contrapuntal” in Comp Lit class, we know what Gitlin and Leibovitz mean when they tell us that “[t]he chosen and unchosen are entangled together by resentment and resignation, mercy and anger, humor and heartbreak, cacophony and harmony.” But if that’s not exactly clear to the reader who has just read about one-sided land theft and expropriation (the authors avoid, in their discussion of American Indians, the issue of genocide), Gitlin and Leibovitz further remind us that “the relationship between the chosen people and those whom they dispossess…is partly an extended war dance, but it is also a sequence of movements, sometimes slow, sometimes stormy, in which the vanquished, while never triumphant, nonetheless help determine the rhythm of history.” I’m sure the remaining descendants of American Indians and present-day Palestinians in refugee camps will take comfort in this discovery of their role in history. Current students of Gitlin’s at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, however, might want to start working on their term papers as soon as possible. Keeping to the theme of the “extended war dance”, Gitlin and Leibovitz show us that the “unchosen” are also susceptible to the same Manichean worldview as the “chosen”. The authors denounce the influence of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth and its impact on the “third-worldist left”, the Palestinians in particular. “Hapless when Israel crushed the Arab armies in 1967”, Gitlin and Leibovitz inform us, these ‘victims of the victims’, as [Edward] Said called the Palestinians, were now ready-made to be cast as the wretched whose destiny—manifest destiny, one might have said—under Yasir Arafat was to inherit the occupied earth.” Thus the playing field is essentially leveled, as the Palestinian quest for statehood in their historic homeland is shown to be not entirely different from American expansionism abroad. For good measure, the authors also distance themselves from Noam Chomsky, “who has for decades been so exercised by American and American-sponsored power and violence as to overlook or minimize or explain away the depredations committed by others.” Of course, no evidence is given to support this accusation, but the contour of the argument is clear: that in the “obsessive hatreds” of America and Israel (never enumerated), the authors hear “not so much love for justice, or the dispossessed, as the curses cast by Paul and Mohammad at their most unforgiving, the faith and fury that herald the passing of the mantle of chosenness from some of God’s children to others.” Present-day examples of this phenomenon aren’t given. If all this seems somewhat convoluted, it isn’t surprising, because a clear assessment of the historical record is not Gitlin and Leibovitz’ objective. Indeed, what useful history is in the book is merely a prelude to what Gitlin and Leibovitz call their “unexpected conclusion”, which is essentially that the United States and Israel must embrace the idea of chosenness “in a different key”. In their Tablet article, the authors claim they set out to write a book challenging the idea of chosenness, whether Jewish or American. I very much doubt this was their intention, for throughout The Chosen Peoples, Gitlin and Leibovitz can only wax grandiloquent about “divine election”. In one place, we are told about “the deep power and exquisite beauty of divine election” and “the profound merits of chosenness”; elsewhere, despite its apparent “beauty”, we are told that chosenness has been “an ordeal, closer to a curse than a blessing” and that, for example, “contemporary Israelis groan beneath the ancient burden, compelled to make sense of chosenness, queasy about unchecked territorial expansion.” (Recent polls of Israeli public opinion, however, suggest that Israelis may be less reticent about expansion that Gitlin and Leibovitz like to believe). Whether good or bad, what these examples clearly point to is the fact that the authors fully subscribe to the reality of chosenness: how else to explain their studied avoidance, throughout the book, of words like “myth” and “illusion”? Of course, Gitlin and Leibovitz, as proper bien-pensant intellectuals, cannot admit that they simply love the idea of “divine election”. To do so would be politically incorrect and embarrassing. Instead, they do what evasive people often do: they cast their advocacy in the language of analysis. “The clock cannot be reset to zero”, Gitlin and Leibovitz write; “we cannot choose to be unchosen”. Furthermore, “the cycles of race hatred, revenge, and war cannot be rescinded, erased from memory. History is unsparing”. This is why “it is no use trying to bludgeon the notion [of chosenness] into nonexistence”, which is fortunate given that it is an “extraordinary, entrancing, ancient [and] deep” notion to begin with. Thus the authors’ preferred conclusion is the inevitable one: “we must, like the Israelites of old, willingly bear the immense burden of membership in a tribe many of whom feel, and have long felt, chosen by God”. Gitlin and Leibovitz are speaking as Jews here; where this leaves America’s sense of “divine election” is anyone’s guess. Finally, what are we to make of the attractiveness of “divine election” for secular intellectuals who are, on a day-to-day basis, otherwise committed to egalitarianism? Many years ago, in an essay for the now defunct journal Grand Street, Noam Chomsky sought to locate the appeal of the Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr for postwar American elites, especially liberals. Unimpressed by the intellectual level of most of Niebuhr’s work, Chomsky found that Niebuhr’s influence lay elsewhere—namely, in his concept of “the paradox of grace”. “The paradox of grace” basically holds that Man’s actions are inevitably tainted by self-interest, yet in a world of sin, moral men must risk doing evil for the greater good. Chomsky quotes Niebuhr’s biographer Richard Fox, who notes that for Kennedy liberals, Niebuhr “helped them maintain faith in themselves as political actors in a troubled—what he termed a sinful—world…responsibility meant taking risks: Niebuhr taught that moral men had to play hardball.” I would suggest that a similar appeal lies in “divine election”. Like the “paradox of grace”, we are encouraged by Gitlin and Leibovitz to assume a great deal of “responsibility”, which in turn obviates the need for accountability. Indeed, if we err, as Gitlin and Leibovitz admit we have done on occasion, it can always be attributed to the “afflictions of chosenness”—afflictions we may not have invited, but are nonetheless at a loss to undo. This is quite useful for those who fear a more unassuming role for America and Israel in the world— a role that, as the authors remind us over and over again, is basically inconceivable anyway. “Even if it were possible for the Jews of Israel to accept the modest project of living normally”, Gitlin and Leibovitz tell us, “it is hard to see how they can reconcile themselves to the belief that their new mission consists of getting by. Logically possible it might be, but psychologically? Not very likely.” In other words, there is no “exquisite beauty” to be found in abiding by international law, or showing, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind.” Better to indulge in fantasies about a “burden to be gladly shouldered”, which, it should be clear to any reader relying on common sense, must obviously be no kind of burden at all—at least not for us, anyway. Matthew Phillips is a twenty-five year old New Yorker pursuing an MA in Middle East studies. He previously reviewed Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions for Mondoweiss.
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Segregation and solidarity
Sep 21, 2010 01:52 pm | Joseph Dana The following is in response to an informal gathering of 'solidarity' the Sheikh Jarrah movement is holding in Tel Aviv on Friday to inform israelis about the struggle there and hopefully recruit more people. From the standpoint of joint Palestinian-Israeli struggle, this Friday’s ‘solidarity Shiekh Jarrah’ gathering in Tel Aviv raises important questions about the direction of the Sheikh Jarrah movement and especially the use of the term ‘solidarity’. The movement is moving to the center of Israeli political protest and away from the joint character of the struggle which has typified it for the past year. In what way is “solidarity” achieved by moving what is labeled as a ‘joint Palestinian-Israeli struggle’ to Tel Aviv, the most ethnically pure Jewish places in the country? Why is the protest not moved to Nablus, Beit Umar, Iraq Burin, Nil’in or even Jaffa? In West Bank villages, Israelis can come and show ‘solidarity’ while in Tel Aviv, travel for Palestinians is something of a problem to say the least. Having a protest in Tel Aviv is not in itself a bad development. The problematic here is the term ‘solidarity’ when the protest is not moved to Palestinian villages and only to Israeli cities. In our conflict, solidarity must be expressed in the places of occupation by invitation of those which are occupied. The Sheikh Jarrah movement has become an Israeli demonstration which is using the term ‘solidarity’ for its own purposes of rallying new Israeli recruits. Again, this is not a bad development per se despite the obvious perversion of having an Israeli protest in the heart of occupied Palestinian land. Because of this location, I think that Israelis are willing to show up in larger numbers complete with their own notions of cultural relativity. The psychological barriers that exist regarding entrance to the West Bank as a civilian are deep in the Israeli mind despite their relatively short period of gestation (even in the 1990’s Israelis were traveling in great numbers to the West Bank to hike and buy food, etc.). Thus, the effect of having a protest in Palestinian territory and even having some Palestinians involved provided a necessary spark to ignite something which could have been truly revolutionary in Israeli-Palestinian joint struggle. However, the desire to attract more Israelis has ultimately destroyed the joint Palestinian-Israeli element of movement. Protesting in Tel Aviv is the most profound manifestation of this sad development because of its isolation from Palestine and Palestinians. The embrace for a two state solution by some aspects in the Sheikh Jarrah movement also raises a problematic linguistic questions about the use of the term ‘solidarity’. By definition, the two state solution seeks a split between Israel and Palestine. It is the ultimate realization of the Zionist dream to have a state of only Jews. It is hard to see notions of solidarity in what is a clearly racist platform for a creation of an ethnically pure state. Officially, the Sheikh Jarrah movement has not supported a two state solution but the common chants of “Shiekh Jarrah is Palestine” leave little doubt as to the platform of the movement. Israelis have the unique position (read privilege) to support the popular non-violent struggle of Palestinians in the West Bank against the occupation, settlements and separation wall. Palestinians have extended an open hand to Israelis to join their struggle which takes place only one hour from Tel Aviv. Many Israelis have answered this call but it has only been a drop in the sea compared with the number of people that harbour ‘left’ opinions in Israel about the occupation and prospects for co-existence through grassroots work. Shiekh Jarrah had the opportunity to energize these people with ‘left’ opinions and lead them in the direction of genuine solidarity with Palestinians struggling against the crippling occupation. Yet, the movement has made the decision to focus energy on exhibiting ‘solidarity’ in places where Palestinians by and large can’t enter. It comes down to one’s definition of solidarity. This post originally appeared on Joseph Dana's blog. 
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More Jordan Valley homes due to be demolished over ‘lack of permits’
Sep 21, 2010 11:16 am | Seham And more news from Today in Palestine: Land and Property Theft and Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing
Jordan Valley homes due to be demolished over ‘lack of permits’
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed Monday afternoon the central Jordan Valley town of Zubaydat and handed out demolition notices against houses in the town.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.a
Palestinian refugees in their own land
Negev, September 21, (Pal Telegraph) Israeli bulldozers reinforced with large troops of police and special units stormed today morning the villages of “Awajan” and “Al Mukimen” which arent recognized and located at the South Negev land - south of the Palestinian occupied territories of 1948 - and destroyed the homes of Arbidi and Abu Hodobi families. Local witnesses said that the villagers were surprised to see the Israeli bulldozers and Israeli police storm the villages without prior warning, then demolished a house of cement built in 2001 and a house made of tin.
http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/palestinian-refugees/7085-Palestinian-refugees-in-their-own-land.html
There Is No Freeze
With eleven days left until the end of the settlement freeze, the construction company Naot Pisgah decided to jump the gun. Despite the current peace talks hinging critically on the issue of continued illegal construction in Palestinian territory, the company started construction 14 September in Modi'in Illit. Naot Pisgah saw themselves with little financial options. The internationally-supported moratorium on construction in the West Bank cost them nearly $48 million, according to their since rejected compensation lawsuit filed against Israel.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1542
U.S. concerned peace talks will soon collapse over settlement building
America's ambassador to Israel told EU envoys that the Obama administration's worry stems from fact that both sides are holding steadfast to their positions.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-concerned-peace-talks-will-soon-collapse-over-settlement-building-1.314876?localLinksEnabled=false
Barak shrugs off freeze issue
Israel, Palestinians have more dramatic decisions to make, Barak tells Gen. Jim Jones in Washington. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3957818,00.html Israeli minister: Palestinians needs to compromise (AP)
AP - A senior Israeli Cabinet minister says the Palestinians need to compromise over their demand that Israel extend a slowdown of West Bank settlement construction.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100920/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians
Peace Now Flight Highlights West Bank Settlements
A flight over the West Bank sponsored by a leftist group was intended to show that the growth of settlements would make a two-state agreement impossible.
http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=4f4d6599a7c93e693df7647254f462da
Palestine's endangered vistas captured in "Masharef"
The Shat-ha walking group leaves Ramallah every Friday morning. The group, founded in 2006 by Dr. Saleh Abdel Jawad, a Birzeit University history and political science professor, and economist Samia Botmeh, has explored the West Bank from its green north to desert south. Now Masharef (Vistas), an exhibition of new photographs by members of the group, brings the threatened beauty of the Palestinian landscape to a wider audience.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11524.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
PRC: Right to return is sacred, no resettling in U.S
flags1res72The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) in London expresses its concerns over the statement of ex-Israeli primer, Ehud Olmert, in which he stated that the previous U.S administration led by George Bush, offered resettling 100 thousand Palestinian refugees, affectively terminating the right of return, a key component to peace enshrined under international law. Olmert's statements explicitly ignored the right of return for all Palestinian Refugees who were expelled upon the creation of the state of Israel. The right to return is guaranteed by all laws and humanitarian accords including the UN resolutions 194 which was reaffirmed over a 100 times confirming the right of Palestinians refugees to return to their land.
http://www.prc.org.uk/newsite/en/centre-activities/press-release/569-prc-right-to-return-is-sacred-no-resettling-in-us
Solidarity/Activism/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment
Weekly protests continue across Palestine
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/09/14612/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
Protest in Berlin demands Germany courts to punish Israeli war criminals
Hundreds of German citizens and pro-Palestinian activists rallied in Berlin to demand the prosecution of Israeli war criminals for the crimes they committed in the war on Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz
Freedom Flotilla Survivors Lead New Convoy
Two survivors from the Israeli assault on the Mavi Marmara are leading the Viva Palestina convoy to break the siege of Gaza. Nicci Enchmarch and Kevin Ovenden were both aboard the Mavi Marmara when it was attacked by Israeli military navy in the early hours of 31st May.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1544
Frank Gehry joins supporters of Israeli settlement boycott
The international campaign to support the Israeli actors' refusal to play in the illegal settlement of Ariel picked up a pair of huge names when architect Frank Gehry and pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim signed on this week. Settlements are Jewish-only communities built on Palestinian land and are considered by many to be the main obstacle to peace.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/frank-gehry-joins-supporters-of-israeli-settlement-boycott.html
Tomorrow – Siege Busters Ball to benefit the US boat to Gaza, Pamela Olson
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/tomorrow-siege-busters-ball-to-benefit-the-us-boat-to-gaza.html
TIAA-CREF CEO confronted on investments supporting the occupation, Adam Horowitz
UMass Boston faculty, staff and students bring the issue of divestment to TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson. This is part of an ongoing campaign to get the investment fund to divest from companies that arm, and profit from, the illegal Israeli occupation.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/tiaa-cref-ceo-confronted-on-investments-supporting-the-occupation.html
"I am sure this occupation will end"
Since 2005, residents of the occupied West Bank village of Beit Ommar have launched nonviolent demonstrations in protest against Israeli colonialism and occupation. Jody McIntyre interviews Beit Ommar Popular Committee secretary Ahmed Abu Hashem for The Electronic Intifada.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11528.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
Harvard unable to decide on Peretz honor, Sam Sternin
The standing committee on Social Studies has still to make a decision on whether to have Martin Peretz speak and whether to accept $500,000 for a scholarship. A meeting on Friday was inconclusive, and yesterday’s meeting also ended without a decision. Apparently, some members of the committee still see an up-side to formally honoring the man who – the Boston Globe excepted – most people seem to agree is a clear-cut bigot see a great post by Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic yesterday).
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/harvard-unable-to-decide-on-peretz-honor.html
What is in a name? ‘Solidarity’ and the joint struggle in Israel/Palestine, Joseph Dana
From the standpoint of joint Palestinian-Israeli struggle, this Friday’s ‘solidarity Shiekh Jarrah’ gathering in Tel Aviv raises important questions about the direction of the Shiekh Jarrah movement and especially the use of the term ‘solidarity’. The movement is moving to the center of Israeli political protest and away from the joint character of the struggle which has typified it for the past year. In what way is “solidarity” achieved by moving what is labeled as a ‘joint Palestinian-Israeli struggle’ to Tel Aviv, the most ethnically pure Jewish places in the country? Why is the protest not moved to Nablus, Beit Umar, Iraq Burin, Nil’in or even Jaffa? In West Bank villages, Israelis can come and show ‘solidarity’ while in Tel Aviv, travel for Palestinians is something of a problem to say the least. Having a protest in Tel Aviv is not in itself a bad development. The problematic here is the term ‘solidarity’ when the protest is not moved Palestinian villages and only to Israeli cities. In our conflict, solidarity must be expressed in the places of occupation by invitation of those which are occupied.
http://josephdana.com/2010/09/what-is-in-a-name-solidarity-and-the-joint-struggle-in-israelpalestine/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-is-in-a-name-solidarity-and-the-joint-struggle-in-israelpalestine
The Siege (Gaza & West Bank)/Humanitarian/Restriction of Movement/Human Rights/Racism
True talk on the Israeli siege of Gaza, Gisha
In advance of tomorrow's meeting of the Ad-hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) for assistance to the Palestinians, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) released a report detailing steps taken to improve Gaza's economy pursuant to a June 20, 2010 Israeli Cabinet decision to "ease" the closure. We analyze what is true and what would be more true about the MFA report.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/true-talk-on-the-israeli-siege-of-gaza.html
Facts Behind MFA Report on “Easing” of Gaza Closure
In advance of today’s meeting of the Ad-hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) for assistance to the Palestinians, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) released a report detailing steps taken to improve Gaza’s economy pursuant to a June 20, 2010 Israeli Cabinet decision to “ease” the closure. The following is a summary of the main points of the MFA report and data which places the information in context.
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/09/facts-behind-mfa-report-on-easing-of-gaza-closure/
Experts: Gaza suffering a sharp food shortage
Nutritional and agricultural experts say the Gaza Strip suffers from a food shortage and high unemployment rate, calling for action to revitalize the local market by encouraging domestic agriculture.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx
Witness - Nablus Restricted
The frustrations and despair of two import-export agents battling to get their clients' goods in and out of Nablus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUvavxynK8M&feature=youtube_gdata
Economic and Social Rights - Adalah August/September newsletter
Following petitions by Adalah and ACRI: Supreme Court rules that Income Tax Law, which provides benefits solely to Jewish communities bordering Gaza, discriminates against Arab towns.
http://www.adalah.org/newsletter/eng/sep10/sep10.html?navi=%2Fnewsletter%2Feng%2Fsep10%2Fsep10.html
IDF instructs settlement guards to seize Palestinians' IDs
In many of the settlements there is a constant presence of Palestinian workers, who are mostly employed in construction, agriculture and various service industries.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-instructs-settlement-guards-to-seize-palestinians-ids-1.314882?localLinksEnabled=false
Violence/Aggression & Provocations
Violent clashes erupt in Silwan after extremist Jews harassed locals
Violent clashes erupted Monday evening between Palestinians on one side and Israeli forces and extremist Jewish groups on the other side in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan, occupied Jerusalem.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U
Rights group: Israeli government sanctions killing
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Following a field investigation, Al Haq says the killing of a Hamas leader in his West Bank home on Friday was a targeted assassination. Iyad As’ad Shelbaya, 38, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in his home in the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem. Israeli authorities claimed soldiers opened fire because they "felt threatened" when the Hamas leader ran towards them. An investigation by the legal rights group Al-Haq found "serious factual inaccuracies" in Israel's version of events. The group said the pool of blood by Shelbaya's bed indicated that he was shot near his bed, and not while running towards soldiers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=316455
Israeli Military Invade Bil'in Attempt to Abduct Youth
An Israeli military force invaded the village of Bil'in, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday midday.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59444
Bil'in reports raid
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Anti-wall protest organizers said an Israeli force entered the Ramallah village of Bil'in on Monday and clashed with young residents, a statement read. Organizers said soldiers searched homes and "tried to arrest local youth," firing tear gas at young residents who responded by throwing stones at soldiers.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=316389
Repression in the West Bank while settlers attack Palestinian olive groves, Joseph Dana As the summer comes to an end with waves of religious holidays in Israel and Palestine, fall is beginning with military raids and pockets of violence towards Palestinians throughout the West Bank. The leading Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, is reporting that a small clash broke out between settlers and Palestinians in village of Iraq Burin this afternoon as settlers attempted to pick olives from Palestinian olive grooves. The Israeli military responded to the settler violence with repression of the Palestinians in the form of tear gas and sound bombs. http://josephdana.com/2010/09/repression-in-the-west-bank-while-settlers-attack-palestinian-olive-groves/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=repression-in-the-west-bank-while-settlers-attack-palestinian-olive-groves
Detainees
Political Detainees Injured During Clashes With Soldiers
Jerusalem – PNN – a number of Palestinian political detainees were reported injured as clashes took place at the Israeli military detention facility Ramon on Monday. The clashes erupted late on Sunday night when Israeli secret service and army troops stormed the jail rooms and tried to search them. The Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Committee said the prisoners were dragged out of their rooms at gun point. There are at least 10,000 Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israeli army jails, last week alone the Israeli army conducted at least 36 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 20 Palestinian civilians, including 9 children, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights stated in its weekly report.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8793&Itemid=64
Fatah detainee returns to Gaza after 18 years in jail
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli authorities released a Rafah man from prison on Tuesday, the Husam Organization for Detainees announced. Following 18 years of incarceration, Majdy Al-Bardini returned to Gaza and was received by friends and relatives in the southern city. Speaking to those gathered to welcome him home, Al-Bardini spoke out against the continued Hamas-Fatah split and called for unity. Al-Bardini was detained during the First Intifada, charged with killing an Israeli soldier and belonging to armed groups affiliated with Fatah.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=316571
Israel's Arab Helpers
Hamas: Official arrested in Egypt falsely accused (AP)
AP - Gaza's Hamas rulers say a senior security official arrested in Egypt has been falsely accused of posing a threat to Egyptian security.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100921/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_hamas_arrest
"Peace" Talks/Political Developments
Israel seeks release of spy in exchange for extending settlement freeze
Binyamin Netanyahu hopes release of spy will appease right wing but US intelligence likely to oppose the deal. Israel is seeking the release of an American jailed for life for spying for the Jewish state in return for concessions in the renewed peace process with the Palestinians, including the extension of a partial freeze on the expansion of settlements in the occupied territories. According to Israel's army radio, the prime minister's office has approached Washington with a deal to continue the moratorium for another three months in return for the release of Jonathan Pollard, a former navy intelligence analyst convicted of spying in 1987. Binyamin Netanyahu, has long pressed for Pollard to be freed, but winning his release would help him sell concessions to rightwing members of his cabinet and the settlers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/20/israel-spy-release-settlement-freeze
Netanyahu wants Israeli troops on Palestinian border
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel wants to keep its troops on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/netanyahu-wants-israeli-troops-on-palestinian-border-2085069.html
Ashkenazi: Army preparing for talks' failure
IDF chief warns of possible 'outbreaks of violence,' including terror attacks, in case Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations collapse, but predicts aggression won't reach Intifada-like levels.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3958115,00.html
US to Palestinians: Don't attack Netanyahu
Senior US officials urge Palestinians to refrain from personal attacks on Bibi, PA official says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3958048,00.html
Abbas: Israel can call itself Jewish-Zionist empire
After Netanyahu calls on Palestinian president to 'just say it – say yes to a Jewish state', Abbas answers that 'if Israel wants negotiations in which Palestinians recognize it, then it must also recognize Palestinian state'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3957902,00.html
Peres and Abbas met in New York: diplomatic source (Reuters)
Reuters - Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in New York on Monday, a week after the latest round of Middle East peace talks ended without visible signs of progress on bridging an impasse over Israeli settlements.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100920/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_meeting
PA hosts US, Israeli officials in Nablus
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Palestinian Authority officials met with Israeli and American officials Tuesday in the northern West Bank city of Nablus amid tight security, informed sources told Ma'an. At least one PA minister was among the group of high-ranking officials at the unannounced meeting, the sources said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=316681
No Middle East peace talks scheduled for Obama this week (AFP)
AFP - President Barack Obama has no current plans for peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in New York this week, the White House said Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100920/pl_afp/unsummitusisraelpalestinianspeace
'Netanyahu in favor of referendum prior to signing peace deal'
According to Netanyahu insider MK Ofir Akunis, Prime Minister gave his support for law that would allay fears of right-wing coalition partners.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-in-favor-of-referendum-prior-to-signing-peace-deal-1.314855?localLinksEnabled=false
PA factions deny Hamas' collusion claims
TULKAREM (Ma’an) -- Palestinian Authority factions in Tulkarem on Monday rejected Hamas' claim that the PA collaborated with Israel in the assassination of a Hamas leader on Friday. Early Friday morning, Israeli soldiers entered the home of Hamas leader Iyad As’ad Shelbaya, 38, in Nur Shams refugee camp and shot him in the neck and chest.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=316415
Other News
Lieberman: Reassessing Israeli Arabs' citizenship is my view, not government policy
Foreign Minister visits Prague for talks with top Czech leaders; Czech FM: Support for Israel is a key element of our foreign policy.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/lieberman-reassessing-israeli-arabs-citizenship-is-my-view-not-government-policy-1.314808?localLinksEnabled=false
Turkel committee may summon left-wing activists
Committee probing flotilla raid asks groups such as B'tselem to hand over info on situation in Gaza.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3957829,00.html
Turkey president cancels talks with Peres, but plans to meet Ahmadinejad
Gul says schedule too tight to meet Israel's president, even after reports last week that the two were to convene for the first high-level talks between the two countries since the deadly raid on a Turkish-flagged Gaza-bound flotilla.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/turkey-president-cancels-talks-with-peres-but-plans-to-meet-ahmadinejad-1.314788?localLinksEnabled=false
Peres resists Gul's call for an apology on raid (AP)
AP - Israeli President Shimon Peres says plans to meet with his Turkish counterpart have been scrapped because Peres won't apologize for the deadly commando raid on a Turkish-led flotilla that tried to breach Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100920/ap_on_re_us/un_israel_turkey
Peres: Israel ready to negotiate with Syria
Iranian, Lebanese presidents seen leaving UN General Assembly as Peres takes podium, proceeds to outline Israel's plans for peace with Palestinians, Syria. 'There is enough room for friendship in Middle East,' he says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3957784,00.html
Restrictions Continue to Undermine Palestinian Economic Viability, Says World Bank
WASHINGTON, September 16, 2010 – Economic growth in the West Bank and Gaza is likely to reach 8% this year but largely thanks to external financial aid while the critical private sector investment needed to drive sustainable growth remains hampered by restrictions on movement of people and goods. The World Bank Board today approved an additional $40 million grant for budget support to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The development institution also delivered a stark warning about the sustainability of growth in West Bank and Gaza in its latest report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) donor meeting.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/MENAEXT/0,,contentMDK:22705039~menuPK:247603~pagePK:2865106~piPK:2865128~theSitePK:256299,00.html
Palestinans seek more aid, pledge reforms (AP)
AP - Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad is appealing for more international aid, pledging continued reforms and vowing that his government will be ready for statehood "at any point" if additional assistance is forthcoming.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100920/ap_on_re_us/us_us_palestinians_aid
New TIPH chief appointed in Hebron
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Brigadier General Einar Johnsen on Monday took over as head of mission for the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, a statement said. Replacing Brigadier General Britt T. B. Brestrup, Johnsen will head the group of 65 civilian observers from six countries observing and reporting on the situation in the West Bank city.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=316401
Ad campaign highlighting East Jerusalem canceled for fear of right-wing reprisals
Cnaan Advertising, which places ads on Egged buses in Jerusalem, refused to accept ad campaign by Ir Amim, which promotes 'an equitable and stable Jerusalem with an agreed political future.'
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/ad-campaign-highlighting-east-jerusalem-canceled-for-fear-of-right-wing-reprisals-1.314874
Hamas: Latest Shalit video was fabricated
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- A video which appeared in the Israeli press Monday and attributed to Hamas "was fabricated and false," officials with the party's armed wing said Tuesday. The video showed captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit flanked by two armed men, one who unpacks papers from a briefcase. It ends with a caption reading "Will the mission be completed" as gunshots are heard.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=316557
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest
American Public Opinion and the ‘Special Relationship’,John Mearsheimer
There is no question that the United States has a relationship with Israel that has no parallel in modern history. Washington gives Israel consistent, almost unconditional diplomatic backing and more foreign aid than any other country. In other words, Israel gets this aid even when it does things that the United States opposes, like building settlements. Furthermore, Israel is rarely criticized by American officials and certainly not by anyone who aspires to high office. Recall what happened last year to Charles Freeman, who was forced to withdraw as head of the National Intelligence Council because he had criticized certain Israeli policies and questioned the merits of the special relationship.
http://pulsemedia.org/2010/09/21/american-public-opinion-and-the-special-relationship/
The Disasterous Legacy of Mahmoud Abbas, Sami Mouybayad
Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is sounding a lot like Egypt’s Jamal Abdul Nasser did 43 years ago. Abbas is threatening to step down if the current talks with the Israelis fail, similar to how Nasser resigned when he led the Arab world to military defeat after the war of 1967. The only detail Abbas seems to miss is that when Nasser resigned, millions of Arabs spontaneously took to the streets, begging him to return to power. King Hussain of Jordan famously said that since Nasser had got the Arabs into the mess of 1967, “only Nasser can get us out!”
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2010/09/the-disasterous-legacy-of-mahmoud-abbas/
"Our Man in Palestine", Nathan Thrall
On August 31, the night before President Obama’s dinner inaugurating direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Hamas gunmen shot and killed four Jewish settlers in Hebron, the West Bank’s largest and most populous governorate. The attack—the deadliest against Israeli citizens in more than two years—was condemned by Palestinian and Israeli officials, who said that it was meant to thwart the upcoming negotiations. According to a Hamas spokesman, however, the shooting had a more specific purpose: to demonstrate the futility of the recent cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces. This cooperation has reached unprecedented levels under the quiet direction of a three-star US Army general, Keith Dayton, who has been commanding a little-publicized American mission to build up Palestinian security forces in the West Bank.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/14/our-man-palestine/?pagination=false
Zionist Dialectics: Past and Future, M. Shahid Alam
'My God! Is this the end? Is this the goal for which our fathers have striven and for whose sake all generations have suffered? Is this the dream of a return to Zion which our people have dreamt for centuries: that we now come to Zion to stain its soil with innocent blood?' -- Ahad Ha’am, 1921. This study has employed a dialectical framework for analyzing the destabilizing logic of Zionism. We have examined this logic as it has unfolded through time, driven by the vision of an exclusionary colonialism, drawing into its circuit – aligned with it and against it – nations, peoples, forces, and civilizations whose actions and interactions impinge on the trajectory of Zionism, and, in turn, who are changed by this trajectory.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16276
A Shared State in a Shared Homeland, Miko Peled
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently argued, 'What is required is creative, novel thinking in order to resolve these complex [peacemaking] issues.' Netanyahu has never been so right. The current Mideast peace talks will fail, as befell predecessors, because they are based on a flawed premise blocking the conflict’s resolution. The proposed solution is based on an uneven partition of the land. Israeli Jews, who make up roughly 50 percent of the population, would receive at least 78 percent of the land – and probably more – while the Palestinians who comprise the other half of the population would receive what remains.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16279
Children of Catastrophe – Book Review, Jim Miles
(Children of Catastrophe - Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America. Jamal Krayem Kanj. Garnet Publishing, Reading, UK. 2010.) Children of Catastrophe is a work of courage, love - of family, friends, and country - persistence, grief, sorrow, joy, anger, bravery, fear, and frustration - in short it encompasses all the emotions that not only are part of life, but a large part of life for a child born and raised in a refugee camp. Nahr el Bared refugee camp was established in 1949 after the nakba in Palestine. Set near the northern border of Lebanon with Syria, the camp existed, grew, and to a degree, thrived and prospered until it was destroyed by the Lebanese army in 2007.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16277
Did God Say: Let There Be Plagues and Wars?, Dallas Darling
You would not know it today by looking at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but in the Book of Genesis, never does it say: And God said, 'Let there be plagues and wars.' Instead, the Book of Genesis declared: And God said, 'Let there be lights'. (Gen. 1:14) And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind.” (Gen. 1:24) Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them be stewards and let them care for every living thing that crawls upon the Earth. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:26-27)
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16278
Lebanon
Israel violates Lebanon airspace
An Israeli reconnaissance plane has violated the Lebanese airspace near the country's southern border, the Lebanese army says in a statement.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/143257.html
Israeli troops fire shots at Lebanon border: army
BEIRUT - Israeli soldiers on Monday fired over the heads of Lebanese troops working on fortifications on the tense border between the two countries, a military spokesman told AFP. "Lebanese soldiers were working at their positions in the Dhayra area when Israeli soldiers fired in the air above their heads," the spokesman said on condition of anonymity. "The Lebanese army did not respond, and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) intervened to contain the situation," he said, adding that "the situation has not yet been resolved." "The Lebanese army was not targeted directly" by the Israelis, he said.
http://www.iloubnan.info/politics/actualite/id/50466/titre/Israeli-troops-fire-shots-at-Lebanon-border:-army
Next Israel-Hezbollah war will be worse, says U.S. analyst
Research published by Washington Institute for Near East Policy says future Israel-Hezbollah war would likely draw in Iran and cover much of Lebanon, Israel and probably Syria.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/next-israel-hezbollah-war-will-be-worse-says-u-s-analyst-1.314880?localLinksEnabled=false
Iraq
50 Dead, 128 wounded in Iraq Attacks
As Iraq continues to muddle along with no new government all these months after the March 7 parliamentary elections, insurgents struck in the capital.
http://www.juancole.com/2010/09/50-dead-128-wounded-in-iraq-attacks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29
Monday: 2 Iraqis Killed, 21 Wounded
Baghdad again saw a number of attacks today, but they were not as deadly as yesterday's. At least two Iraqis were killed and 21 more were wounded in the new violence. Meanwhile, hundreds of looted artifacts returned to Iraq before being "lost" again were found in a storeroom belonging to the prime minister's office. Also, several members of parliament attempted to meet in an unofficial capacity but were thwarted by the usual politics.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/09/20/monday-2-iraqis-killed-21-wounded/
CNN Censored Footage of Iraq ‘War Crime’
A former CNN Iraq correspondent suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder says his employers wouldn't run footage he filmed of what he describes as a war crime by US troops.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/excnn-reporter-network-censored-footage-iraq-war-crime/
The “Right Thing” in Iraq?, Gary Leupp
Fox News recently reported that 58% of U.S. residents believe that the U.S. “did the right thing” in going to war in Iraq. This reflects the fact that most have been persuaded that combat is over, the troops having succeeding in toppling a dictator and establishing a democracy. I don’t know how accurate the statistic is, but my gut feeling is that it’s probably pretty accurate. And profoundly depressing. Have people forgotten that this war was fought, not for such reasons, but to destroy Saddam Hussein’s (alleged) weapons of mass destruction and end his (supposed) cooperation with al-Qaeda?
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/09/the-%e2%80%9cright-thing%e2%80%9d-in-iraq/
Children of al-Qaeda in Iraq pay for sins of their fathers
IN BAQUBAH, IRAQ Zahraa is a rambunctious toddler. She still sucks on a pacifier, and her mother dresses her in pink. But according to the government, she does not exist. The daughter of an al-Qaeda in Iraq militant who forced her mother into marriage and motherhood, then disappeared, Zahraa is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children whose births amid the anarchy and insurgent violence of Iraq were never legally recorded.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/20/AR2010092005696.html?hpid=topnews
America’s “Justice” in Occupied Iraq: Why Tariq Aziz Should Be Released, Muriel Mirak-Weissbach
The appearance on August 5 of an interview with former Iraqi diplomat, Dr. Tariq Aziz in the Guardian was a minor bombshell, whose repercussions were to be felt worldwide. Like an underground explosion, the interview sent waves throughout international waters, rocking many boats and reaching far distant shores. It was not only what the former top Iraqi diplomat said — although his brief statements were of utmost relevance — but the mere fact that he was allowed to speak out in public which sent eerie signals across international diplomatic circuits.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/09/america%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%9cjustice%e2%80%9d-in-occupied-iraq-why-tariq-aziz-should-be-released/
Iran
Iran, Lebanon Walk Out on Peres Friendship Speech
President Shimon Peres addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, saying “the Middle East has room for every person, every nation, every religion... there is enough room for friendship in the Middle East.” Representatives from Iran and Lebanon walked out as he took the podium. Mentioning the Israel-Palestinian Authority negotiations, Peres said, “We are now negotiating... in order to realize the two-state solution: A Jewish state – Israel, and an Arab state – Palestine. There is no other peaceful alternative, and I believe that we shall succeed.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139722
Obama says military action against Iran not ideal
U.S. President claims military action is an option but army commanders warn of region destabilization.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/obama-says-military-action-against-iran-not-ideal-1.314848?localLinksEnabled=false
President Ahmadinejad's Interview With ABC's Christiane Amanpour
In an exclusive interview on "This Week with Christiane Amanpour," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he is open to diplomatic discussions with the United States on the subject of Afghanistan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrOXWFccyPE&feature=player_embedded
Iran hits back: US also executes women
Iranian officials slam US 'double standards,' media criticism of Iranian woman's stoning sentence.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3958102,00.html
U.S. and Other World News
Sami Samir Hassoun, Terror Suspect, Was Given Fake Bomb By FBI
CHICAGO — A man arrested for allegedly placing a backpack he thought contained a bomb near Chicago's Wrigley Field got the fake explosive from an FBI undercover agent, authorities say – a tactic that has been used in other U.S. terrorism cases in recent years. Sami Samir Hassoun, 22, a Lebanese citizen living in Chicago for about three years, was charged Monday with one count each of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive device.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/21/sami-samir-hassoun-terror_n_732975.html
Did U.S. Soldiers Create Afghan Killing Club?
U.S. soldiers charged with targeting Afghan civilians; Army ignored pleas by soldier's father.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5617&updaterx=2010-09-20+09%3A37%3A21
War criminal: Powell unsure whether U.S. is winning in Afghanistan
Mr. Powell also said that neither the United States nor Israel is likely to launch a military strike on Iran any time soon.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/19/powell-unsure-whether-us-winning-afghanistan/
Tony Benn on Tony Blair: "He Will Have to Live 'Til the Day He Dies with the Knowledge that He Is Guilty of a War Crime"
We speak with former British cabinet minister and MP Tony Benn. He was the longest-serving MP in the history of the British Labour Party, having served for more than half a century. He is now president of the Stop the War Coalition.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/21/british_mp_tony_benn_on_tony
Violence, fraud and cronyism keep millions away from Afghan poll
Almost as quickly as the international community rushed to praise Saturday's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, complaints of widespread irregularities began pouring in, echoing the protracted wrangle over vote-rigging that returned President Hamid Karzai to power last year.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/violence-fraud-and-cronyism-keep-millions-away-from-afghan-poll-2083871.html
Voter fraud claims abound after Afghan elections
It will take weeks to determine a final tally in parliamentary races. Some monitoring groups consider the mere fact that balloting took place as a positive sign. Complaints of fraud mounted in Afghanistan on Monday, two days after parliamentary elections meant to shore up the country's fragile democracy. But all sides said it was too soon to tell whether voting irregularities had significantly tainted the outcome of the balloting.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/PACz9XPPwMc/la-fg-afghanistan-election-20100921,0,6536403.story
US Attack Kills 8 In Pakistan
At least eight people were killed and two others injured in a U.S. drone strike launched Monday afternoon. One of the missiles reportedly hit a vehicle carrying five local welfare workers and all of them were said to be killed.
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7146487.html
Fired U.S. Attorneys: Bush Administration 'Turned The Justice Department Into The Laughingstock Of The Country'
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Five of the federal prosecutors whose firings in 2006 sparked an investigation into President George W. Bush's Justice Department blamed their ouster Monday on politics in the department, which one of them said became a "laughingstock." The five former U.S. attorneys, among nine who were let go, appeared together during a forum in Little Rock.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/20/fired-us-attorneys-bush-doj-laughingstock_n_732579.html
IG: FBI gave inaccurate statements claiming terror link to anti-war rally
The FBI gave inaccurate information to Congress and the public when it claimed a possible terrorism link to justify surveilling an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh, the Justice Department's inspector general said Monday in a report on the bureau's scrutiny of domestic activist groups. Inspector General Glenn Fine said the FBI had no reason to expect that anyone of interest in a terrorism investigation would be present at the 2002 event sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center, a nonviolent anti-war and anti-discrimination group.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/fbi-gave-inaccurate-statements-claiming-terror-link-antiwar-rally/
Tackling sexual harassment in Egypt
Activists are launching a project to highlight incidents of sexual abuse and help transform attitudes to women in the process.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/21/egypt-sexual-harassment
'Arabs cannot afford to waste a single drop of water,' LAU conference warns
BEIRUT: "If water resources become even more limited, it could destabilize the Arab region and destabilize peace," according to one of the speakers at this year's German-Arab environmental conference, held at the Lebanese American University (LAU) Byblos campus on Monday. Fathi Zereini, from the German-Arab Society for Environmental Studies.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=119516
Catholic Church backs Muslim struggle to build Milan's first mosque
While New York frets over the construction of an Islamic cultural center and mosque near ground zero, Milan is pushing back against construction of its first mosque. Local Muslims have found an unlikely ally in the Catholic Church.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/Gbe5Easm9u8/Catholic-Church-backs-Muslim-struggle-to-build-Milan-s-first-mosque
"Understand anti-Semitism, and anti-Muslim bigotry", Yaman Salahi
In a recent On Faith posting, Rabbi Shmully Hecht of Eliezer, a Jewish student society at Yale University, criticized a column I wrote for the Yale Daily News. Sadly, Hecht employed a tactic that has become increasingly familiar in American discussions about Arabs, Muslims, and Islam. In my column, I argued that a conference sponsored by the Yale Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism undermined the lessons to be learned from anti-Semitism because it hosted a variety of speakers with a reputation for promoting racist ideas about Arabs and Muslims. My message was simple: you cannot fight anti-Semitism without also fighting racism against Arabs and Muslims. Racism is wrong because of what it does, not because of whom it targets.
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/09/understand_anti-semitism_and_anti-muslim_bigotry.html
Imperialism and Imperial Barbarism, James Petras
Imperialism, its character, means and ends has changed over time and place. Historically, western imperialism, has taken the form of tributary, mercantile, industrial, financial and in the contemporary period, a unique ‘militarist-barbaric’ form of empire building. Within each ‘period’, elements of past and future forms of imperial domination and exploitation ‘co-exist’ with the dominant mode. For example, in the ancient Greek and Roman empires, commercial and trade privileges complemented the extraction of tributary payments. Mercantile imperialism, was preceded and accompanied initially by the plunder of wealth and the extraction of tribute, sometimes referred to as “primitive accumulation”, where political and military power decimated the local population and forcibly removed and transferred wealth to the imperial capitals. As imperial commercial ascendancy was consolidated, manufacturing capital increasingly emerged as a co-participant; backed by imperial state policies manufacturing products destroyed local national manufacturers gaining control over local markets. Modern industrial driven imperialism, combined production and commerce, both complemented and supported by financial capital and its auxiliaries, insurance, transport and other sources of “invisible earnings”.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/09/imperialism-and-imperial-barbarism/
Glenn Greenwald on Iran, Tea Party Candidates, Jon Stewart and Obama's Assassination Policy
We speak with Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional law attorney and the political and legal blogger for Salon.com. Greenwald discusses White House rhetoric toward Iran; Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s planned rallies in Washington, DC; the Obama administration’s assassination policy that includes targeting US citizens; tea party candidates in the November midterm elections; and much more.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/21/glenn_greenwald_on_iran_tea_party www.TheHeadlines.org 
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Harvard Crimson: ‘No donation is worth indebting the University to practioners of hate and bigotry’
Sep 21, 2010 10:08 am | Adam Horowitz Oh, you thought that quote was in reference to the ongoing Marty Peretz saga? Think again. From the Harvard Crimson - in 2003: While Harvard depends on the generous donations of its benefactors, nothing is gained from a gift that taints its integrity. The University is right to freeze a $2.5-million donation from Shiekh Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), until the full extent of his connection to an extremist think tank that he founded, the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-up, is brought to light. Sheikh Zayed made the donation to the Harvard Divinity School (HDS) in 2000 to support the worthy goal of hiring an Islamic studies professor. Unfortunately, it came to light last spring that the Zayed Center has hosted Holocaust deniers and speakers who accuse the United States government of carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks. The Zayed Center was closed by the UAE in August, but Harvard has put the donation on hold for the coming year, “in view of the evolving situation,” according to a University spokesperson.
Here's the Crimson last week - "Lots of good can come from this donation, however controversial the figure behind it may be. It would be a shame to discount Peretz’s entire body of work and intellectual contributions due to two unfortunate sentences." If it were only "two unfortunate sentences." Harvard returned the donation from Al Nahyan, it remains to be seen what they will do with Peretz. 
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Frank Gehry joins supporters of Israeli settlement boycott
Sep 21, 2010 09:34 am | Adam Horowitz From a Jewish Voice for Peace press release: The international campaign to support the Israeli actors' refusal to play in the illegal settlement of Ariel picked up a pair of huge names when architect Frank Gehry and pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim signed on this week. Settlements are Jewish-only communities built on Palestinian land and are considered by many to be the main obstacle to peace. Known for iconic buildings like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Gehry is considered the “world's most influential architect” according to Vanity Fair Magazine. Daniel Barenboim is a legendary pianist and conductor who, along with the late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said, created the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brings together young Jewish Israeli and Arab musicians. Both Gehry and Barenboim, who are Jewish, signed a US/UK artist's statement in support of leading Israeli actors and writers who refused to normalize their own government's illegal settlements and who risked their livelihoods for their stance. The statement, organized by US peace group Jewish Voice for Peace, has already been signed by over 200 theater and film professionals representing some of the most respected and renowned artists in theater and film – including Oscar, Tony, Grammy and Pulitzer prize-winner Stephen Sondheim, Julianne Moore, film director Mira Nair, Sex and the City's Cynthia Nixon, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner, 21-time Tony winner Harold Prince , star of the film "Yentl," Mandy Patinkin, Fiddler on the Roof star and Cameri co-founder Theodore Bikel, Jennifer Tilly, Harry Potter's Miriam Margolyes, Ed Asner, Wallace Shawn, and Focus Films’ James Schamus among many others. Earlier this year, Frank Gehry stepped down as an architect for the controversial Museum of Tolerance project in Jerusalem: many have criticized the Simon Wiesenthal Center for building the museum on top of a Muslim cemetery. Meanwhile, silence from groups in the United States that are quick to attack critics of Israeli policies shows how indefensible the settlement policy has become. 
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Harvard unable to decide on Peretz honor
Sep 21, 2010 09:22 am | Sam Sternin The standing committee on Social Studies has still to make a decision on whether to have Martin Peretz speak and whether to accept $500,000 for a scholarship. A meeting on Friday was inconclusive, and yesterday’s meeting also ended without a decision. Apparently, some members of the committee still see an up-side to formally honoring the man who – the Boston Globe excepted – most people seem to agree is a clear-cut bigot (see a great post by Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic yesterday). Without even a hint of irony, Harvard as an institution claimed that not accepting the funds would be a violation of academic freedom (who was it who said Muslims didn’t deserve first amendment protections?) and quaintly described his views as merely “distressing.” Fortunately, Social Studies and Harvard alumni and students know the difference between blacklisting someone and deciding to honor him with a named scholarship. Over 450 have signed an open letter (which includes a choice selection of Peretz’s quotes on not only Arabs and Muslims but also African Americans and Latinos) calling on the university to reconsider, including: - Over 65 social studies alums, 15 social studies staff and faculty, and more than 65 other Harvard alumni and 75 current Harvard students.
- Signers from Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (under which Social Studies falls) as well as the Kennedy School of Government, the Law school, the Business school, the Medical school, the school of Public Health, and the Education school.
- The oldest alumni signature is from the class of 1963, and the youngest is from 2010; there is even a parent of a current student who signed on!
- Robert Paul Wolff, the first head tutor of Social Studies from 1960-1961 has signed on along with at least 3 other faculty who taught with the program when Peretz was associated with the program.
This letter has been shared with the Social Studies committee and the President of Harvard, with no reply thus far. We hope they will publicly explain whatever decision they come to, unlike Peretz who thinks that because people are giving money to Harvard he has nothing to answer for. As for the wealthy and influential alumni and friends of Peretz who are behind the effort to honor him, they’ve been conspicuously silent in past weeks. Who knew that Al Gorethinks people like Peretz deserve to be honored? Maybe Jamie Gorelick (9-11 commission) or Juan Carlos Zarate (senior adviser to CSIS and former deputy national security advisor) might be uncomfortable being associated with Marty’s views on Arabs and Muslims. Marc Grantz’s wealthy Middle Eastern corporate clients at Credit Suisse may not be thrilled by his backing the scholarship, if David Ignatius thinks Marty’s such a great guy he clearly doesn’t even begin to understand what it would take to be a neutral mediator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Amy Gutmann is not only the president of UPenn who writes about the social responsibility of universities, but is also on the board of the National Constitution Center (no comment on Peretz’s 1st amendment slip-up, but maybe it’s ok since he apologized). And since Peretz has not limited his bigotry to Arabs and Muslims, maybe Abigail Thernstrom (vice-chair, US Commission on Civil Rights and noted sholar and commentator on issues of race in the US) would disagree with Peretz’s assertions that Latin societies suffer from ‘congential corruption’ and ‘near tropical work habits’; perhaps Thomas Williamson (chair of the ChevronTexaco Task Force on Equality of Fairness, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs) would find promoting Marty’s views on African Americans to be a bit tricky to reconcile with his own work. The only person we can be sure will come out guns blazing to support Peretz would be Alan Dershowitz, but he’s already so discredited that no-one is likely to mind much. Sam Sternin grew up in south and southeast Asia, graduated from Harvard with a degree in Social Studies in 2001, and has an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School. In college, he was active in almost every ethno-religious group that would have him, ranging from the Harvard Vietnamese Association and the Harvard African Students Association to the Society of Arab Students and the Harvard Islamic Society. These views are solely his own, though others are welcome to share them. 
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