Middle East

NOVANEWS How Christians are Treated by the "Better Brethren" in the Birthplace of Jesus crescentandcross | September 3, 2010  Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p2dGk-ts

NOVANEWS Dear Friends, In a speech at the solidarity demonstration with the actors who refuse to perform in Ariel, an Israeli colony in the West Bank, Israeli playwright Joshua Sobol revealed that the government’s contribution to Israeli theater is 10%.  He added that the theater companies could survive without that piddling sum.  Perhaps Limor Livnat and the others were unaware of this when they threatened to cut off funding (item 1).  The new criteria for funding are striking, since they would seem to allow (albeit unintentionally) for theater companies to perform in Ramalla no less than in Ariel.  One response to the present government's kind of thinking is Gideon Eshet’s argument in item 2 that boycotts are not only legitimate, but are also a means that are decidedly Jewish.  While Esh...

NOVANEWS 09/04/2010 Report finds US policy toward Israel/Palestine contradicts American values Honored speaker at Bard College derides Muslims’ praying habits and sniggers at First Amendment Armed settlers steal 35 acres of Palestinian land but U.S. pressures Abbas to lie back and think of England, and Hear, O Israel– first the Pixies and Elvis Costello, now ‘Massive Attack’ says we won’t play Jim Crow On Al-Quds Day ‘The Israel Project’ cuts Abbas out of the picture ‘Cookie monster, hubba hubba, inside out socks, and melted ice cream!’ (Revising George Will) Well I’ve got a hammer! Washington Post, LA Times and NYT publish important Palestinian voices Report finds US policy toward Israel/Palestine contradicts American values Sep 03, 2010  Adam Horowitz In April the America...

NOVANEWS Why one-state solution makes sense (told in the Wash Post) AP knows the Iraq war is far from over Massive Attack embrace BDS Can Julian Assange stay in charge? Finkelstein dares to say the occupation is real and present Briefly hearing what real Iraqis feel and fear Churches standing up to ‘pro-Israel’ politicians Murdoch’s love of illegality in the pursuit of hacked calls Iraqi corpses will always haunt the war backers Why one-state solution makes sense (told in the Wash Post) Posted: 03 Sep 2010 Poignant, beautiful, sensible and moderate piece by Palestinian George Bisharat in the Washington Post. The one-state solution lands with a thud in the pages of the American mainstream press: “Where is the Palestinian Mandela?” pundits occasionally ask. But aft...

NOVANEWS 09/02/2010 ‘New York Post’ joins campaign against Moustafa Bayoumi Freeman: Obama has failed in Middle East due to ‘pathologies’ of US political life Look at this list of settler-initiated crimes against Palestinians in the last few weeks Hamas attack was wrong What is Hamas thinking? Abunimah on settler murders: security for all Yale stands by it, but it sure can’t spell it Don’t jump to conclusions about who staged yesterday’s attack The Israel lobby will be televised Israel vs Israel ‘New York Post’ joins campaign against Moustafa Bayoumi Sep 01, 2010 Alex Kane The New York Post, the sensationalistic right-wing daily in New York, is joining the smear campaign against Moustafa Bayoumi, the Brooklyn College professor and the editor of the newly released book titled Mi...

NOVANEWS Rupert says Iraq war is bloody wonderful Iraqis do exist in the thoughts of Times journalist Blair incapable of seeing Iraqi blood on his hands, feet and head Too many facts about Islam will just be confusing MSM can barely focus on Iraqis for too long Obama hearts Bush over Iraq and group hugs all around The normality of radical and racist Jews in the bosom of the state Rupert says Iraq war is bloody wonderful  01 Sep 2010 Our favourite Murdoch war booster, Greg Sheridan, in today’s Australian: Iraq is starting to look as though it may turn out to be a great, historic American success.   Iraqis do exist in the thoughts of Times journalist 01 Sep 2010 Here’s that rare thing; a Western reporter, New York Times‘ James Glanz, writing about working with Iraqis in t...

NOVANEWS A request from Matan Cohen. Please distribute widely, and consider helping financially. Dear friends, On 19 November, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled against me in thelawsuit regarding my injury during a protest in the West Bank inFebruary, 2006. (I was shot, together with 14 others, with severalbullets, one of which hit my eye, and partially blinded me). See http://www.haaretz.com/news/youth-17-says-shot-in-the-eye-by-border-police-officers-1.181116 Not only that, the judge also ruled I pay some 78.000NIS (20k) incompensation, as they deemed it a "frivolous lawsuit." I did not expect justice from an apartheid regime, nor did I receiveany. Still we must use whatever mean are available to us even in thiscorrupt system to fight this fine. As we stand to appeal the ruling to the Su...

NOVANEWS Haaretz Thursday, September 02, 2010 2 Israelis wounded in second West Bank shooting attack in two days The attack on Wednesday occurred at Rimonim Junction, east of the West Bank city of Ramallah, a day after a similar attack left four Israelis dead. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/2-israelis-wounded-in-second-west-bank-shooting-attack-in-two-days-1.311583 By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press Two Israelis were wounded, one seriously, on Wednesday night in a shooting attack in the West Bank, one day after a similar attack left four Israeli civilians dead. The attack on Wednesday occurred at Rimonim Junction, near the Israeli settlement of Kochav Hashachar and east of the West Bank city of Ramallah. Around 11 p.m., there were reports of a shooting in the Rimonim Junctio...

NOVANEWS Dear All, I just lost my complete longish introduction, and am too tired to repeat the hour or so of work that went into it.  So a quick rundown of the 4 items will have to do.  Just let me mention that I was quite angry in writing it.  One of the issues that angered me was Obama’s statement following yesterday’s murder of 4 Israelis that he would continue to guarantee Israel’s security.  Fine.  And what about Palestinian security?  That doesn’t count?  Fortunately there are people like Rabbi Arik Aschermann who realize that settlers can be mean, violent and vengeful, and who therefore send out calls for help, as tonight’s « Date: Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:04 AM Subject:  Urgent: people needed TONIGHT against settlers' "price tag" [price tag is a settler term for revenge acts] "There...

NOVANEWS I will not comment on the Hamas killings of four settlers in the West Bank except to comment that I will not comment on those killings. As Seham points out in the last several months there were many Israeli attacks against Palestinians. Many Palestinians were shot or died and I did not even write about every atrocity I saw with my own eyes in Gaza. No one apologized for those atrocities. No heads-of-state spoke about the assassination of Ahmed Salem Deeb, nor did the New York Times decide to cover the day when a dum-dum bullet turned his leg to jelly, leading to his death.That paper does not cover or condemn the quotidian crimes committed against the Palestinian populace, and the good people of New York and LA either don't know or don't care that the attack against the armed param...