Politics

NOVANEWS In This Issue... New resource in the fight for Israeli Democracy More Recent Articles Search The Only Democracy? New resource in the fight for Israeli Democracy  By Jesse BaconAmidst the dispiriting news coming from both American and Israeli democracy, one of the signs of hope has been the people who have continued to resist the downward trend. Association for Civil Rights in Israel is one of those hope-inducing groups, and they recently launched a new english-language version of their website Project Democracy, along with partners like Shatil and Zochrot. Their first post is a good a motto for our work as any ““Democracy cannot be sustained by voting alone.” As we have found here at TOD? there is no shortage of material, Project Democracy’s...

NOVANEWS  October 28, 2010  by crescentandcross By Ami Kaufman I hope that headline pissed you off. I really do.Because that’s how I pretty much felt this morning, when I picked up the paper. I was reading the coverage of the approval of a bill proposal to allow small communal settlements in the Negev and the Galilee to reject would-be newcomers, if they are unsuitable on various grounds for life in the community. “Unsuitable”, means, of course, “Arab”. Not that I’m surprised by the bill being approved. Nah, not these days. Not in today’s Israel.  But what always seems to get to me is how easily racists have risen to power here. And how easily they can say whatever they want, now that they hold the reins. The Klu-Klux-Klan never took over the White House, and I don’t recall any guys...

NOVANEWS Israel Ranks Among Western World’s Most Corrupt Countries  October 27, 2010 by crescentandcross  Receiving a score of 6.1 out of 10 Israel is in 22nd place out of 33 OECD members; meanwhile, U.S. drops out of top 20 least corrupt countries. By Lior Dattel and ReutersHaaretz” – -Israel ranks among the most corrupt countries in the Western world, according to a study released by the International Transparency Organization on Tuesday. October 26, 2010 “ Out of 178 countries – 1 being least corrupt – Israel was listed at number 30. But when compared to other member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Israel fared much worse. The least corrupt countries were listed as Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore. Israel received a score of 6.1 out of 10 in th...

NOVANEWS Nicolas Sarkozy admits Jewish ancestry, French press reveals ties to Israeli intelligence October 27, 2010 by crescentandcross   Most Popular Content All   Speaking In Tongues–The Deadly Dialect of the Zionist Language Stuxnet Computer Worm–Israel’s Attempt To Silence Iran on 9/11 or Veiled Threat to the Entire World? Pastor Terry Jones--All Bark and No Bite When It Comes To Speaking The Truth About Islam and Judaism Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt); October 25, 2007 As if his marital challenges were not enough cause for concern, “Sarco the Sayan” has suddenly emerged as the most infamous accolade of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The influential French daily Le Figaro last week revealed that the French leader once worked for — and perhaps still does, it hinted — Israeli ...

NOVANEWS Israel ‘Outraged’ as UN Calls for End to Settler Attacks October 27, 2010 by crescentandcross  UN Envoy Slams Attacks on Mosques, Olive Trees by Jason Ditz, October 26, 2010 Email This | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry today condemned a flurry of high profile settler attacks across the West Bank, urging the Israeli government to “combat violence and terror” by the settler groups. The settlers have launched a number of attacks in recent weeks, burning mosques and chopping down olive trees ahead of the harvest. Israel’s government has criticized the attacks, but made no arrests. And naturally Israeli officials are “outraged” by what they termed the “reprehensible” comments of Robert Serry, with one i...

NOVANEWS October 27, 2010 Oct 26, 2010 An aide to Israel’s former internal security chief says his boss has canceled a trip to Spain for fear he could be arrested for alleged war crimes. Avi Dichter, now a parliament member, was supposed to head an Israeli delegation to a peace conference in Spain beginning Thursday. Dichter faced charges of crimes against humanity in Spain for his role in a 2002 airstrike that killed a Hamas commander and 14 civilians in the Gaza Strip. The court dropped the suit, but Dichter spokesman Nisan Zeevi said Tuesday that Spain could not guarantee Dichter would not be arrested. Pro-Palestinian lawyers have filed a number of war crimes charges against Israeli officials in European courts. No cases have gone ahead, but officials have canceled trips for fear of arr...

NOVANEWS Netanyahu ‘salutes’ commandos who raided Gaza flotilla October 26, 2010 by crescentandcross  Saying “I salute you,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the headquarters on Tuesday of Israeli naval commandos who killed nine pro-Palestinian Turks aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship in May. Netanyahu’s tour of the top-security Shayetet 13 base on the coast near Haifa was a show of defiance against international censure of the raid on the converted cruise liner Mavi Marmara. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Israeli naval commandos who participated in a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last May, in Atlit naval base, northern Israel, Oct. 26 2010 Photo by: AP It followed testimony on Sunday from Israel’s military chief, who told a state-appointed inquest...

NOVANEWS   By Jesse  Bacon When the specifics of Israel’s siege of Gaza came to light, it appeared almost random in its insanity and cruelty. The famous example is the prohibiting of pasta while allowing rice, all the while claiming this was somehow ensuring Israel’s security. Well wonder no longer. Through the heroic efforts of Gisha, whose work we feature regularly here on The Only Democracy?, the actual policy has been released. It turns out there is a detailed series of charts and formulae that look like someone attempted to translate the lectures of Glenn Beck into public policy. In the driest of terms, it represents a calculus of human misery, equations of despair that add up to the starvation of Gazans and a protracted conflict. Here is Gisha’s summary of the revealed policy, with...

NOVANEWS Israel should take an example of co-existence from Jewish day schools in the diaspora, where non-Jews and Jews work together for the general good. By Alex Sinclair and Robbie Gringras   26.10.2010   It seems to us that most Israelis - even liberal-minded ones - suspect that no matter how we treat Palestinian-Israeli citizens, they will never be truly integrated into mainstream society. Even if we were to ensure an equal distribution of resources, even if Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman were to stop threatening them with loyalty oaths, even if we were to make peace with the Arab world - there would remain something inherently problematic about a non-Jewish minority in a Jewish ethnic state. Lurking beneath the desire to do right by Palestinian-Israelis, there lays a secret form ...

New photos of Israeli soldiers humiliating Palestinian detainees disclosed October 26, 2010 by crescentandcross     Most Popular Content All   Speaking In Tongues–The Deadly Dialect of the Zionist Language Stuxnet Computer Worm–Israel’s Attempt To Silence Iran on 9/11 or Veiled Threat to the Entire World? Pastor Terry Jones--All Bark and No Bite When It Comes To Speaking The Truth About Islam and Judaism October 25, 2010OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– A Hebrew website unveiled on Sunday new photos showing sadist Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip humiliating and scoffing at blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian prisoners, while Al-Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies revealed a picture for a little girl being surrounded by another group of soldiers. The website Walla said ...