Middle East

NOVANEWS The building housing the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate is not beautiful. Its beige concrete is filthy with Cairene grit. Towering meter-square concrete columns stand in rows in front of a cobalt-blue mirrored-glass façade, a jarring mix of faux-Greek architecture and modernist conceit. It has a large set of steps in front of it, rising for 5 or 6 meters. On Saturday, on those steps, over 200 Egyptian activists for Palestinian rights, alongside 20 or more international sympathizers, condemned the underground metal wall the Mubarak government is now building on the Gaza-Egypt border. The event was filled with energy. One participant clambered atop the riot barriers, holding on to two fellow demonstrators for support, leading the protesters in a call-and-response chant: “Hosni Muba...

صورة القيادي في حركة حماس محمود المبحوح بين يدي والده في مخيّم جباليا في قطاع غزّة (أرشيف ــ رويترز) هزت عملية اغتيال الكادر في حركة حماس، محمود المبحوح صورة الموساد. وصورة الموساد تهتز باستمرار، وإن كانت إسرائيل تسعى ــ بالاستناد إلى وسائل الإعلام الإسرائيليّة والغربيّة الخانعة وبعض «العربيّة» ــ إلى تجميل صورة الذراع الإرهابية والتجسّسية للدولة العدوّ. وتحرص إسرائيل على ذلك لأن صورة الموساد ــ لا دوره الحقيقي ــ كانت جزءاً من الرادع الصهيوني الاستراتيجي في المواجهة مع العرب. لكن الموساد نعِم بسمعة تفوّق لم يستحقّها. الموساد أخاف العرب بسبب الحرب النفسيّة، لا بسبب مهارته   أسعد أبو خليل * اعتمدت إسرائيل في مواجهتها الطويلة مع العرب على عناصر استراتيجيّة ثلاثة: 1) التفوّق النوعي في تكنولوجيا السلاح. وكان ذلك بداية نتيجة الاستفادة من الجاليات اليهوديّة في أوروبا وعلاقاتها هناك، بالإضافة...

  NOVANEW Lisa Goldman is a freelance journalist and blogger. Her articles have been published in Time Out Tel Aviv, Ynet, the Forward, Haaretz, Corriere Della Sera, the Guardian and the Columbia Journalism Review. She lives in Tel Aviv. Over the past week, two prominent Zionist political analysts have written columns that pull no punches in portraying the current government as a collection of embarrassing buffoons at best; and dangerously paranoid at worst. Neither Haaretz's Aluf Benn nor Maariv's Ofer Shelah is a novice critic of the Netanyahu government. This round of criticism, however, goes beyond the normal gibes directed by cynical journalists at even-more-cynical politicians. Their articles reveal a sense of deep disquiet over the state of the state, and how the actions of...

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: February 20, 2010 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- A Hamas leader assassinated during a visit to Dubai last month exposed himself to attack when he breached security protocol by talking about his trip over the phone and making hotel reservations on the Internet, the militant Islamic group said Saturday. The methodical stalking and killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a luxury hotel room -- widely blamed on Israel's Mossad spy agency -- has put Hamas on the defensive over purported security lapses. The new details emerged as the case has spread across several continents with investigators probing possible credit card links to U.S.-based banks and European officials grilling Israeli envoys over fraudulent passports. Hamas legislator Salah Bardawil said al-Mabhouh ...

NOVANEWS Thirteen Israeli human rights organizations sent an urgent letter (attached) to the president, the Knesset speaker and the prime minister, protesting the increasing and systematic campaign against human rights organizations in Israel: "A democracy must not silence critical voices; protecting human rights is vital." In their letter, the organizations cite former head of the Oz unit Tziki Sela and Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who accused organizations assisting refugees of "aiming to destroy Israel" and "undermining the Zionist enterprise;" Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon, who said of human rights organizations "your enemies will come from within;” the summoning of human rights activists for investigation by the Israel Security Agency (the General Security Service) and warnings ...

by Adam Horowitz on December 30, 2009 Protest at the United Nation building in Cairo (Photo: Rafaella Lima) As the Gaza Freedom March finally makes the pages of the New York Times, Egypt has announced that they will allow 100 members of the march to enter Gaza. This is from the over 1,300 people in Cairo who have assembled to enter the besieged territory. AFP reports: "It’s a partial victory," said Medea Benjamin, an American activist and one of the demonstrations organisers. "It shows that mass pressure has an effect." They said the foreign ministry offered to let them choose 100 delegates who would be allowed into Gaza. They were due to leave Cairo for Gaza on Wednesday morning. Activists have staged demonstrations and sit-ins around Cairo to push for entry to Gaza. Dozens of Frenc...

NOVANEWS I’m reading the Goldstone Report. It’s amazing. I never did read it through. It’s the greatest work by a Jewish writer. No it’s not literary, but it’s a fervent effort to give dignity to the lives of Palestinian civilians gunned down in their homes because Zio=Nazi soldiers were pursuing a policy of frightening the population and "communicating" with bullets. I see now why the Goldstone report will resonate for a long time. Because it’s overwhelming. Because its findings are inarguable– or so far uncontested. Because it’s been nullified by the Zionist lobby and this offends the world, when civilians are wantonly murdered and there is zero accountability. 15 civilians killed when a mosque is hit by a missile; Zio=Nazi regime of ‘Israel’ denies it hit the mosque. 22 huddled civilian...

NOVANEWS DECEMBER 25, 2009 I’m reading the Goldstone Report. It’s amazing. I never did read it through. It’s the greatest work by a Jewish writer. No it’s not literary, but it’s a fervent effort to give dignity to the lives of Palestinian civilians gunned down in their homes because Zio=Nazi soldiers were pursuing a policy of frightening the population and "communicating" with bullets. I see now why the Goldstone report will resonate for a long time. Because it’s overwhelming. Because its findings are inarguable– or so far uncontested. Because it’s been nullified by the Zio=Nazi lobby and this offends the world, when civilians are wantonly murdered and there is zero accountability. 15 civilians killed when a mosque is hit by a missile; Zio=Nazi regime of ‘Israel’ denies it hit the mosque. ...

NOVANEWS Breaking the Silence has compiled testimony from soldiers who participated in the "Cast Lead" Gaza invasion which suggests they were told "when in doubt, shoot." From Reuters: Gaza invasion: Some Zionist troops claim ‘shoot first, worry later’ order The Zionist regime rejects charges by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN agencies that its January invasion of the Gaza Strip inflicted civilian death and destruction on an unjustifiable scale. Now, some of the Zionist soldiers who took part say they were urged by commanders to shoot first and worry later about sorting out civilians from combatants. Accordingly, they say, the force went into Gaza with guns blazing. In print and video testimony published tomorrow by the activist group Breaking the Silence, the 30 soldiers ...

NOVANEWS Zionist Wants Prison For Those Recognizing the Palestinian Holocaust–Jewish Groups Remain Silent By Mark Glenn “And the LORD spake unto Moses saying, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them the following–When ye are passed over the Jordan river into the land of Canaan, ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and tear down all their high places…And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein, for I have given you the land to possess it…But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which shall remain shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides and shall vex you in the land ...