Monthly Archives:
September 2014

75

Netanyahu at the United Nations: Hamas, Iran, ISIS and 100 cheering Israelis

Allison Deger on

With much anticipation Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Monday morning to lambast Hamas and refuting claims of his soldiers targeting civilians during Operation Protective Edge. He followed the Palestinian Authority President’s charges of “genocidal” Israeli army conduct in Gaza, but, like in years past, Netanyahu focused on Iran (and employed the use of a prop). As he spoke the galley of the GA assembly hall was stacked with members of the Israeli delegation, including casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who cheered at key moments while delegates from member countries refrained from applause.

57

The Greater Gaza Plan: Is Israel trying to force Palestinians into Sinai?

Jonathan Cook on

What is Israel’s endgame in Gaza? It is a question that has been puzzling analysts and observers for some time. But indications of the future Israel and Washington may have in mind for Gaza are emerging. Reports in the Arab and Israeli media – in part corroborated by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas – suggest that Egypt may be at the heart of plans to solve the problem on Israel’s behalf. This month the Israeli media reported claims, apparently leaked by Israeli officials, that Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, had offered the Palestinian leadership the chance to annex to Gaza an area of 1,600 sq km in Sinai. The donated territory would expand Gaza fivefold. The scheme is said to have received the blessing of the United States.

27

ISIS wants us to come in and bomb Arabs (Rouhani and Matthews agree)

Philip Weiss on

Charles Krauthammer has praised Israel’s “mowing the lawn” policy of massacring Palestinians as a “successful” model for the U.S. in dealing with radical Muslims in Iraq and Syria. Chris Matthews wisely rejects this as any kind of model for our country, which has been seen killing Arabs again and again

16

‘Tip of the BDS iceberg’: Kuwait excludes Veolia from $750m contract

Palestinian BDS National Committee on
Anti-Veolia graffitti

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) warmly welcomes the decision by the Kuwait City Municipality exclude the French company Veolia from a huge solid waste management contract, valued at $750 million, citing the BNC appeal to that affect. Basing its decision on Veolia’s complicity in Israeli projects that violate international law, the municipality also decided to exclude Veolia from “all future projects.”

25

Modi and Netanyahu’s NY bromance

Philip Weiss on

The Israeli and Indian prime ministers went out of their way to have a meeting in NY yesterday, reflecting an Indian shift from support for Palestinian aspirations to support for Israel. The third side of the triangle is the U.S., which forgives Narendra Modi his part in a Muslim massacre and never had a problem with Netanyahu’s recent massacre in Gaza.

31

‘Jews Against Genocide’ take the blood bucket challenge at Yad Vashem

Kelly Lynn on

Activists from Jews Against Genocide have released a video compilation depicting their version of the Blood Bucket Challenge, an extreme spin on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which flooded Facebook feeds for the last three months. Originally conceived by Ohio University student senate president Megan Merzak, who received a barrage of death and rape threats following the release of her video, activists poured buckets of fake blood over themselves after reciting “we remember…,” statements in memorial of the more than 2,100 Palestinians killed in the last Israeli assault on Gaza. The activists filmed themselves in front of Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum in West Jerusalem, the US embassy in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem, the Israeli military radio station in Tel Aviv, and the Knesset, Israel’s parliament building in Jerusalem.

23

‘Only a suicidal country doesn’t recognize the Bedouin problem’: Israeli minister seeks ways to lower Bedouin birthrate

Kate on

Haaretz reports: “Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir said during a visit to the south on Sunday that he was examining ways to lower the birthrate of the Bedouin community. Shamir heads the ministerial committee on Bedouin resettlement arrangements. “We have to take all the Bedouin and get them out of the desert a bit and bring them closer to a normal state from the perspective of legislation, life expectancy, education and livelihood,” Shamir said. “Perhaps we could even deal with the phenomenon of multiple wives to reduce the birthrate and raise the standard of living.”

153

Netanyahu heads to New York to ‘refute all the lies’ and praise ‘the most moral army in the world’

Allison Deger on

Although some friends will receive him at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows tomorrow he will be in hot water. When he left for New York this morning for his speech on Monday, he gave a bitter farewell: “In my address to the UN General Assembly,” he said on the tarmac, “I will refute all of the lies being directed at us and I will tell the truth about our state and about the heroic soldiers of the IDF, the most moral army in the world.”

75

When Rouhani says blaming ISIS on Islam is Islamophobic, is anyone listening?

Philip Weiss on

There’s been a lot of attention to the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. But what about the rise of Islamophobia, which is being fostered by ISIS’s violent actions, which Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president and a cleric, says have nothing to do with Islam but are the fruit of western colonialism?

23

The name games

Hatim Kanaaneh on

Israeli Population, Immigration and Border Authority announced the winning first name for Israelis: Youssef. But the statistics were for Jews only. Mahmoud, Muhammad and Ahmad, all variants on the prophet’s name, are hugely popular among the Palestinian population and easily outpace Yossi, says Hatim Kanaaneh

16

A catalog of impunity

Philip Weiss on

Omar Robert Hamilton compiled a list of 26 Israeli actions since the Gaza ceasefire at the London Review of Books that demonstrates the country’s impunity in committing rights abuses, from firing on fishermen to building tunnels in occupied territory to raiding the Al Aqsa mosque

3

Why is the United Nations doing business with G4S, notorious prison supplier?

Kali Rubaii for Friends of Sabeel—North America on

In early September, I accompanied an Iraqi friend to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Amman, Jordan to help register him officially as a refugee. There was a G4S logo on the gate attendant’s shirt. And G4S all over the compound. Why is the British company that serves Israeli prisons a UN contractor?

50

Champaign-Urbana holds Rosh Hashanah service for Professor Salaita

Samantha Brotman on

“Elevating Anti-Semitism above other oppressions” and “Feeling powerless in the face of the silencing of Palestinian voices, like that of Professor Steven Salaita” are sins for which progressive Jews atone at Rosh Hashanah service in Champaign Urbana

0

Burke and Lincoln would have hated the special relationship

Philip Weiss on

Glenn Greenwald’s latest revelation, that three former Treasury officials are involved in a neoconservative Zionist lobbying outfit, combined with David Brooks’s apparent belief that he’s an Israeli parent, shows how commingled the Israel interest is in our political culture, the type of sinister influence Lincoln and Burke both warned their democracies against

29

Schumer is obnoxious

Philip Weiss on

NY Senator Chuck Schumer “bellowed” at Delta Airlines ceo Richard Anderson to “Fly to Israel,” when the FAA had issued a ban on US airlines going there during the Gaza onslaught