NewsTrust - Israel - 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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Israel's "Pathology"

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Ira Chermus - Nov. 14 (Opinion) - From the outside, it looks like Obama and his advisers are drifting without a rudder, unable to guide themselves, much less the Israelis and Palestinians, toward the peace the president says he's committed to. Pundits chalk it up to the administration's ineptitude or the power of the Israeli lobby or the chaotic state of Palestinian politics, or all of the above.

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A Fiasco

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - Nov. 12 (Editorial) - It's time to stop the verbal pretense. In the Near East, there is no negotiation "process" underway. Furthermore, there is also no prospect for peace. ..... The United States bears the primary responsibility.

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Israeli Rabbi's Guide to Killing Causes Firestorm

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

themedialine.org - By Benjamin Joffe-Wait - Nov. 10 (Review) - The book further states that Jews are permitted to kill children "If it is clear they will grow up to harm us." "If hurting an evil leader's children will pressure him to stop acting maliciously," Rabbi Shapira wrote, "you can hurt them."

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Israeli and Palestinian youth use video to understand the conflict

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Global Voices - By Juliana Rincón Parra - Nov. 07 (Opinion) - Two different organizations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories are using video tools to help both Arabic and Jewish youth to understand the conflict and bridge gaps between them, creating spaces for interaction and communication where they can share their dreams, concerns and thoughts regarding the complex situation they live in.

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The Liberty Affair and the Problem with the Truth of History

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

alanhart.net - By Alan Hart - Nov. 05 (Review) - Text of the San Diego Union Tribune’s op-ed Forty years ago this week, I was asked to investigate the heaviest attack on an American ship since World War II. As senior legal counsel to the Navy Court of Inquiry it was my job to help uncover the truth regarding Israel’s June 8th1967 bombing of the USS Liberty.

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The Story of 'Operation Orchard': How Israel Destroyed Syria's Al Kibar Nuclear Reactor - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:27:40 -0800

Der Spiegel - Nov. 04 -

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The Middle East: Victory Is Obsolete

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Winslow Meyers - Oct. 26 (Opinion) - Acceptance of each other can only follow from acceptance of some bigger realities that form an inescapable context for both sides. The first reality is that they each equally perceive themselves as fighters for a just cause. It is futile to try to force people who carry a torch against what they are sure is unjust to move from resentment to acceptance. This forcing, by either side, carries a dark and ironic connotation of extermination - of ideas, values and hopes, if not of actual people.

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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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Wake Up US Government: Go for the GOLD and Walk with the Wind!

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Op Ed News - By Eileen Flemming - Oct. 19 (Opinion) - The Goldstone Report accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes perpetuated during 23 days which began two days after last Christmas day, when the Israeli military launched a full-scale attack on Gaza that killed 13 Israelis and 1,400 Palestinians.

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On Tape: Bolton Backs Israeli Nuke Strike On Iran?

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Nick Baumann - Oct. 17 (Comment) - During a little-noticed speech at the University of Chicago on Tuesday, John Bolton suggested a way to resolve the controversy over Iran?s nuclear program: Israel should launch a nuclear attack on Iran. Speaking to the University Republicans and the Chicago Friends of Israel, Bolton, George W. Bush?s hawkish ambassador to the United Nations, said, "Unless Israel is prepared to use nuclear weapons against Iran?s program, Iran will have nuclear weapons in the very near future." Bolton has repeatedly declared that Iran?s nuclear program is unacceptable. Given that he holds this position, his contention that the only way to prevent a nuclear Iran is with a nuclear attack appears to be a backdoor endorsement of just such a strike. ...

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Jamal Dajani: Israel vs. Iran: The Writing is on the Wall

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jamal Dajani - Oct. 02 (Editorial) - Iran has agreed to allow international nuclear inspectors to view its recently revealed uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom, and President Obama has called talks between U.S. diplomats and their Iranian counterparts about the country's

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Israel pays close attention as Iran nuclear talks set to start

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Worldfocus - Sep. 30 (Interview) - With crucial talks aimed at curtailing Iran’s nuclear program set to begin, the rhetoric is heating up. On Thursday, the United States, along with the other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany, will meet with Iranian officials in Switzerland hoping to convince Iran to come clean about its nuclear ambitions. They may be fighting an uphill battle. On Wednesday, Iranian President Mamhoud Ahmadinejad said that it’s the West that needs to change its ways. Israel will be following the progress of the negotiations closely. There has been talk that the Israelis will take military action against Iran, if the talks don’t succeed.

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Think Again: Palestine

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Zahi Khouri - Sep. 25 (Opinion) - The idea of "economic peace" suggests an economic conflict, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is certainly not that. Although economic issues do figure into Palestinian concerns, they are not nearly as important as addressing the rights of Palestinian refugees, terminating Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, and establishing a viable, independent, and sovereign Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. To suggest that economics are what this is about would be to sideline history and to willfully ignore the reality of Israel's occupation. This conflict is political and it calls for a solution that is political.

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Israel's Supporters Ask, "What Sin?"

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Ira Chernus - Sep. 24 (Opinion) - As Jews observe "aseret y'mai t'shuvah, the ten days of turning around," I would humbly suggest that supporters of both sides who have trouble with reading comprehension might want to try turning around and taking a new direction: reading carefully and looking at all the facts, while allowing the possibility that their preconceived frameworks of interpretation might not be serving anyone's best interests. If there is ever to be a resolution of the conflict - which is surely in everyone's best interests - that is a necessary first step.

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Settling for Failure in the Middle East

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Stephen M. Walt - Sep. 20 (Opinion) - Like so many of his predecessors, President Obama is quickly discovering that persuading Israel to change course is nearly impossible.

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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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The Elders' View Of the Middle East.

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Jimmy Carter - Sep. 06 (Opinion) - Settlement expansion is disturbing and disheartening. The Elders’ View Of the Middle East In current condition and what seems more realistic than a 2 state solution is actually a 1 state, which should be democratic with clear minority rights for Muslims, and Christians. I think it is impossible to think of divided Jerusalem. Each religion including the orthodox Syrians, Armenian and the Kopts as well as mainstream Catholic and Lutheran and So shouls the mainstream 3 (as far as I know) Jewish religious communities and Muslims. Some have religious 'courts', which deals with religious and family laws. If necessary because of security in Jerusalem, it could be som kind of international oversight 'council' to secure freedom of religion and worship. Building a third Temple is many Jews dream, but to destroy the Dome of the Rock would be a cultural and artistical cruelty when one think of those who actually built and decorated it. The Dome of the Rock is in way one of the wonders of the history of the peoples of this earth. Personally, my dream is a third temple built on the vacant land between the Wailing Wall and the Jewish part of the Old City, where the Wailing Wall became part of the new Temple's structure to remind all of us of the destruction of the 2 wonderful Jewish Temples that has been there before. But I do not think I will see this happen in my lifetime, being a child Shoah survivor. But eventually it is for the citizens of the State of Israel to decide.

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No Peace Without Syria

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Commentary Magazine - By Michael J. Totten - Sep. 06 (Opinion) - No Arab government in the world is as stridently anti-Israel, in both action and rhetoric, as Assad’s. There is no better way for a detested Alawite regime to curry favor with Sunnis in Syria and the Arab world as a whole than by adopting the anti-Zionist cause as its own.

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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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Israel has Iran in its sights

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Micah Zenko - Aug. 30 (Opinion) - Iran has until late September to respond to the latest international proposal aimed at stopping the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon. Under the proposal, Iran would suspend its uranium enrichment program in exchange for a U.N. Security Council commitment to forgo a fourth round of economic and diplomatic sanctions.

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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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