Middle East

NOVANEWS David Bromwich ends a piece at Huffpo with stirringly homely excerpts of letters from Rachel Corrie, as he seeks to place the political struggle for Palestinian rights in an American context. On Hardball on March 9, Chris Matthews in Jerusalem interviewed Ethan Bronner, the New York Times bureau chief. They began by talking about Israeli hostility toward the content of Obama’s Cairo speech, and eased into a polite exchange about the prejudice against Obama’s middle name, when all at once a veil dropped away: BRONNER: I think there’s also some sense here that–some degree of racism, to be perfectly honest.MATTHEWS: Yes. They–because they see it as a black man. The operation of Israeli racism against a black American president is powerfully enforced by the settler movement and by it...

NOVANEWS Yes I am bad for owning the whole loaf but you are just as bad for dreaming you can own it Did you listen to Ethan Bronner’s multimedia report on the article where you rightly point out that he only called Israelis? He says that both sides have elements that oppose the two-state solution. And for both it is giving something up, and that for both the dream is the whole pie. Then he realizes what he’s done, and says one side has to give up the dream and the other side has to give up the practice. So Palestinians giving up the dream of one Palestinian state (how many people still seriously say this?) and Israelis giving up the practice of one (the occupation) are equivalent? Naturally, there was no mention of occupation and international law, and how they play into these "dreams" an...

NOVANEWS Look at this headline of the New York Times: "Zionist Seals Off West Bank to Prevent Unrest." So the New York Times does not even wait to provide justification for Israeli actions. It does so in the headlines now.

NOVANES This is how Ethan Bronner labels the Zionist illegal settlement plan: "An ill-timed municipal housing announcement..." So it is just ill-timed. Also, notice that the Western press and the Saudi Arab press now talk about pressures on Zionist Netanyahu from his "right-wing coalition partners." So Likud is not right-wing anymore? And the right-wing Kadima (founded by Sharon) is now referred to as centrist. Pretty soon, the US media will be referring to Netanyahu as the far-left Zionist leader.

NOVANEWS "US Vice President Joe Biden did lay a wreath at Herzl’s grave, initiating the new policy that was in effect until 1994, but then lapsed when many visiting leaders preferred to pay their respects at the nearby grave of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin instead. Nevertheless, World Zionist Organization treasurer Haggai Merom issued a statement saying Lula da Silva’s action was “an insult to Israel’s citizens and to Zionist communities around the world, including to the Jewish community in Brazil.”"

NOVANEWS Or how to trick the Palestinians to abandon the right of return: "(b) "Atomization" of the implementation by making the offer of compensation and relocation directly to the heads of families and not through any Palestinian organizational entity that may well have a vested interest in foiling the scheme."

NOVANEWS Antony Loewenstein Just in case we’d forgotten why Washington should never pressure Israel (today it’s Iran, yesterday it’s Iraq and perhaps in years to come…Venezuela?): As more than a dozen lawmakers go on record to ask the Obama administration to end the diplomatic spat with Israel following Vice President Joe Biden’s visit, some are now warning that a prolonged dispute could risk harming international efforts to contain Iran’s nuclear program. “What are we doing playing hardball with an ally like this?” asked House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-VA, in an interview with The Cable. “What’s important here is for all of us to be focused on the nuclear threat from Iran … We’re dependent upon that ally to be with us to combat Iran’s nuclear program.” Cantor phoned White House Chief o...

NOVANEWS Tehran said Tuesday that it has not intervened to block reconciliation between Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, rejecting accusations made by Palestinian PUPPET Mahmoud Ab-ass, a Fatah member. "Such remarks are just aimed at covering the failure of the plan for reconciliation," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in Tehran. Ab-ass on Saturday accused Tehran's leadership of not wanting Hamas to sign an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation plan. Ab-ass added that the Palestinians should be "freed from Iranian tutelage."     Mehmanparast said such reconciliation plans were unlikely to succeed, not because of any Iranian involvement, but "because they do not refer to the roots of the Palestinian problems." "All Iran seeks is unity among Pales...

NOVANEWS Brave Herrenvolk soldiers communicate with the natives The announcement is a new military order declaring the wall area of Bil'in a closed military zone on Fridays and forbidding entry of internationals and Israelis.

Haaretz    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1156487.html  By Amira Hass, Haaretz Correspondent   The response from the Israel Defense Forces spokesman came surprisingly quickly; a mere two or three hours after the query had been sent by Haaretz, the spokesman replied orally, and then in writing, that "following the reporter's question and after receiving most of the facts, the chief [military] prosecutor, Col. Jana Modzagbrishvili has instructed the military police to look into the matter." The matter, according to most of the facts, was that soldiers had beaten a civilian, who was bound and blindfolded, for several hours on January 7. Starting in the village of al-Tawani in the southern Hebron Hills, the affair continued at the military base in Sussia. The man who was beaten was Masab ...