No One Saw This Coming? Part II
A couple a days ago I linked recent settler violence with the IDF plan to train and arm setters - ostensibly to fight against nonviolent protesters. Unsurprisingly, the settlers are back at it. On monday morning, Israeli settlers desecrated and set fire to a mosque in the village of Qusra. Windows were smashed and graffiti was written on the walls, … Read more
No One Saw This Coming? Really?
So there was no mention that these were the same people, but it seems pretty clear that this would/will continue to happen. The IDF has conducted detailed work to determine a “red line” for each settlement in the West Bank, which will determine when soldiers will be ordered to shoot at the feet of Palestinian … Read more
The Mavi Marmara (Palmer) Report from the United Nations Critique
Anyone who has been seeing the news the past 20hrs or so sees an interesting headline on the major media outlets. It reads something like this “UN report says Israeli blockade is legal.” So far I have found minor variation from the major media outlets and I would like to commend the New York Times … Read more
Legal Implications on the Palestinian Bid in September and More…
As has been discussed by me in two parts (here and here) the Palestinian move at the UN in September is more a showcase than a real thought out political move. Each side has its reasons discussed in the two articles so I will not reanalyze these, but just add a few points. The first … Read more
More Thoughts on the Palestinian Bid in September
As I was reviewing news this morning, I came across an article that I felt is important to my article yesterday. The point of my article yesterday essentially was that there is an attempt on each side, in the leadership, to achieve a specific goal and control the narrative. The Palestinian leadership wishes to maintain … Read more
Dear Mahmoud Abbas, Here is a Better Plan for September
Mahmoud Abbas in his infinite wisdom is still due to ask the United Nations and its member states to recognize Palestine as its 194th country. As has been said before, this is not the platform at this present time to discuss exactly what legally should happen. Instead I wish to dwell on something Mahmoud Abbas … Read more
Will Abbas Ethnically Cleanse Jews from Palestine? Seriously?
The argument is entitled ‘Abbas’ Vision for an Ethnically Cleansed Palestine‘ and I am pretty sure that Jonathon Tobin, writing at Commentary Magazine is serious. This could have come straight out of the Onion. Seriously. The main argument? That dismantling the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank after a peace deal would be a sort … Read more
Dear Israeli Tent Movement, You are not Tahrir Square
It has been said lately by Western media outlets that the tent movement going on in Israel is a ‘revolution‘ or ‘Israeli Arab Spring.’ This could not be any more disingenuous, incorrect, or belittling of the Arab Spring movements. Israelis are mostly protesting about prices, specifically for homes and necessary goods. This is the one and only … Read more
The Palestinian State that Wasn’t – Links
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Arab Awakening – Joel Beinin For Mahmoud ‘Abbas at least, the bid for Palestinian UN membership is based in large measure on Prime Minister Fayyad’s successful management of a highly constrained and territorially circumscribed neoliberal economic revival. This project has some popular support, especially in the northern West Bank, … Read more
Kidnapping Minors, or The Only Democracy
Annie at Mondoweiss flagged the above video. What strikes me is how much the scene resembles a Hollywood kidnapping scene, right down to the masks worn by the secret police. The arrested child, Jaber, was eventually released after about an hour of interrogation during which he refused to sign a document written in Hebrew without … Read more
