NewsTrust - Gaza - Most Recent Stories: Opinion

OpEdNews - Article: One year later...and the doors to the world's largest prison are still sealed shut

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Op Ed News - By Pam Rasmussen - Nov. 19 (Opinion) - Since January 2006, when Palestinians had the audacity to choose their own government (led by Hamas) in elections widely recognized as free and fair, Israel has imposed collective punishment on the people of Gaza in the form of a crushing blockade. Less than a quarter of the volume of supplies they normally need have been allowed in since December 2005 – and in some weeks, the trickle permitted by Israel is significantly less. Israel maintains a list of “duel-use” items such as steel pipes and fertilizer, which it says could be used to manufacture weapons. These are never allowed in, with rare exceptions for "special humanitarian cases."

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Which Way for Hamas?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The New York Review of Books - By Nicolas Pelham, Max Rodenbeck - Oct. 22 (Opinion) - Amid the wreckage of Gaza, Hamas's officials struggle to sound upbeat. The burly interior minister, Fathi Hamad, whose predecessor was killed by an Israeli bomb, defiantly shuns security precautions at his makeshift office in Gaza City's main police station. "Claims that we are trying to establish an Islamic state are false," says the minister, who says his preference would be pursuing a degree in media studies. "Hamas is not the Taliban. It is not al-Qaeda. It is an enlightened, moderate Islamic movement."

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Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Robert L. Bernstein - Oct. 20 (Opinion) - Human Rights Watch had as its original mission to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters. But recently it has been issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.

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My mission - and motivation

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Jerusalem Post - By Richard Goldstone - Oct. 20 (Opinion) - I begin with my own motivation, as a Jew who has supported Israel and its people all my life, for having agreed to head the Gaza mission. Over the past 20 years, I have investigated serious violations of international law in my own country, South Africa, in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda and the alleged fraud and theft by governments and political leaders in a number of countries in connection with the United Nations Iraq Oil for Food program. In all of these, allegations reached the highest political echelons. In every instance, I spoke out strongly in favor of full investigations and, where appropriate, criminal prosecutions. I have spoken out over the years on behalf of the International Bar Association against human rights violations in many countries, including Sri Lanka, China, Russia, Iran, Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

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Goldstone report: Israel's failings

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By George Bisharat - Sep. 19 (Opinion) - Will Israel's decades-long impunity from international law finally come to an end? That is the question facing the international community in the aftermath of the just-released Goldstone report.

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Goldstone's Rosh Hashanah Bomb

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jamal Dajani - Sep. 18 (Opinion) - The news hit Israel like a bomb, and I do not use this word lightly for a region riddled with bullets that has seen its share of real bombs that kill and maim people.

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Holocaust Still a Political Football

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Ira Chernus - Sep. 04 (Opinion) - Matthew Rothschild and I both thought of Edward Said when we read about two Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council insisting that Gaza's schools should not teach the history of the Nazi Holocaust. Cleric Yunis al-Astal said this would be "marketing a lie" and a "war crime." Jamila al-Shanti commented, "Talk about the Holocaust and the execution of the Jews contradicts and is against our culture, our principles, our traditions, values, heritage, and religion."

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The Settlements Issue

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jul. 31 (Editorial) - The last American president to openly challenge Israel on settlements was George H.W. Bush and we commend President Obama for demanding that Israel halt all new construction. The controversy must not obscure Mr. Obama’s real goal: nudging Israel and

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Why Eileen Fleming is no longer a Feature Correspondent for The Palestine Telegraph

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Op Ed News - By Eileen Fleming - Jul. 26 (Advocacy) - Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" "But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" "And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right."-Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Sizing Up President Obama's Foreign Policy After 6 Months

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By David Ignatius - Jul. 19 (Opinion) - Six months on, how is Barack Obama doing in foreign policy? Some leading experts give the new president high marks for improving America's battered image abroad, but they warn that the hard work is still ahead. Obama's first priority was boosting America's standing in a world angered by the Bush administration's arrogance and unilateralism. Obama rightly saw this as a major national security threat, and he used his charisma to change that image in a hurry.

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John Pilger on Honduras, Iran, Gaza, the Corporate Media, Obama's Wars and Resisting the American Empire

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By John Pilger, Amy Goodman - Jul. 06 (Interview) - Award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker, John Pilger, joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on on Honduras, Iran, Gaza, the media, health care, and Obama’s wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pilger has has written close to a dozen books and made over 50 documentaries on a range of subjects including struggles around the world for a more just and peaceful society and against Western military and economic intervention.

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Caught in the Middle

Sat, 02 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By David Ignatius - May. 02 (Opinion) - Gaza is simply one of those problems for which there isn’t much middle ground. Israelis and Palestinians are both convinced not only that they are right, but that the other side is morally bankrupt.

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Canadian Judge Upholds Government Decision to Bar British MP George Galloway on National Security Grounds

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By George Galloway, Amy Goodman - Apr. 01 (Opinion) - Canadian officials say they banned Galloway on national security grounds, saying he provided financial support to Hamas, the Palestinian political party which was elected in January 2006 and controls the Gaza Strip

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A brave man who stood alone. If only the world had listened to him

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Robert Fisk - Mar. 30 (Opinion) - Tom Hurndall had stayed in Rafah. He was only 21 where – in his mother's words – he lost his life through a single, selfless, human act. "Tom was shot in the head as he carried a single Palestinian child out of the range of an Israeli army sniper." Mrs Hurndall asked me to write a preface to Tom's book and this article is his preface, for a brave man who stood alone and showed more courage than most if us dreamed of. Forget tree huggers. Hurndall was one good man and true.

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Let Shalit Go

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jamal Dajani - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - Almost a thousand days have passed since the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit, an Israeli tank gunner, by three Palestinian militant groups. At the time Shalit was 19. He would have been at home in Mitzpe Hila this week had the negotiations between Israel and Hamas not faltered.

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An Honest Conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By David H. Young - Mar. 12 (Opinion) - the fundamentals of this conflict that have existed since 1967 are somehow becoming more obvious and less accessible every day. As rhetoric bleeds into strategy, sobering arguments are polluted by perverse distortions and the only thing that makes sense is confusion. As a humble remedy, perhaps, the following conversation is a synthesis of hundreds of hours of candid discussions between Israeli and Palestinian colleagues and friends. It offers no solutions or common ground, but only pain. Until we get through the meat of this war, the bones will never heal. Here is how these enemies think and argue.

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CLOSED ZONE

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Mar. 04 (Opinion) - An Israeli creator of the Oscar-nominated "Waltz with Bashir" released a short film Wednesday about the effects of his country's Gaza blockade on Palestinians.

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The new movement against Israel's apartheid

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

socialistworker.org - By Eric Ruder - Feb. 27 (Opinion) - the assault on Gaza has also brought a change of another sort. It stirred a commitment among people around the world that the time has come to do something about the intolerable conditions facing Palestinians.

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Can Gaza Be Rebuilt Through Tunnels?

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Ann Wright - Feb. 25 (Opinion) - How do you rebuild 5,000 homes, businesses and government buildings when the only way supplies come into the prison called Gaza is through tunnels? Will the steel I-beams for roofs bend 90 degrees to go through the tunnels from Egypt? Will the tons of cement, lumber, roofing materials, nails, dry wall and paint be hauled by hand, load after load, 70 feet underground, through a tunnel 500 to 900 feet long and then be pulled up a 70-foot hole and put into a waiting truck in Gaza?

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$900 Million From U.S. To Gaza: Is The Administration Nuts?

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By Marty Peretz - Feb. 23 (Opinion) - The real issue is: where will the cash go? The administration is assuring us that it will not go to Hamas, as if anyone can assure that materiel and money can be siphoned off just to the desired parties. This, frankly, is a joke...and Mrs. Clinton knows it. So should President Obama.

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Once You See What Truly Happened in Gaza, it Will Change You Forever

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Media Benjamin - Feb. 19 (Advocacy) - For those of you who want to get a better sense of the Israeli occupation of Gaza... PLEASE read Media Benjamin's personal experience. I completely identified with it. When one finally sees or witnesses how Palestinians are treated, it really does changes your perceptions forever. CAUTION: GRAPHIC PICTURES INCLUDED.

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Mitchell's Prospects for Lasting Israeli-Palestinian Accord 'Slim to None'

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Council on Foreign Relations - By Bernard Gwertzman - Feb. 02 (Interview) - ... it's clear to me that they've substituted at this stage process for substance. They have no intention of making major changes in America's approach to the Arab-Israeli issue, because right now, the prospects of any sort of conflict-ending agreement between Israelis and Palenstinians are slim to none.

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Obama's Interview On Al Arabiya

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CBS News - Jan. 27 (Interview) - "I think the most important thing is for the United States to get engaged right away, and George Mitchell is somebody of enormous stature. He is one of the few people who have international experience brokering peace deals. "

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The Bullets in My In-Box

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Ethan Bronner - Jan. 26 (Opinion) - ... trying to tell the story so that both sides can hear it in the same way feels more and more to me like a Greek tragedy in which I play the despised chorus. It feels like I am only fanning the flames, adding to the misunderstandings and mutual antagonism with every word I write because the fervent inner voice of each side is so loud that it drowns everything else out.

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Gaza War

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Jan. 25 (Opinion) - According to UNICEF, their preliminary estimate of the damage done by the Israeli military to Gaza infrastructure is $1.9 billion. Note that this is Gaza infrastructure, not Hamas infrastructure. So at least the war weakened Hamas's political control of Gaza, right? Not so much. So then, the Israeli military boasted that it destroyed 60% of the tunnels whereby Gazans smuggle food, medicine and other goods into Gaza (the Israelis say they bring in explosives for rocket-making as well; but since rockets can be made from simple materials and petroleum products, and since the rockets are so primitive, they can't be bringing in very good explosives). So at least, the Israeli war on the people of Gaza permanently reduced the capacity of those tunnels, right? Naw, the Gazans are working Caterpillar backhoes to rebuild the tunnels, already!

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