Politics

NOVANEWS By Scott Horton Most American war reporting stretches from the corridors of the Pentagon to embeds with the troops. It rarely offers a street-level view, and almost never the perspective of the civilians caught up in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that’s the forte of Nir Rosen, a scholar associated with New York University’s Center on Law and Security. His latest book, Aftermath, describes the impact of the war on families from Beirut to Baghdad to Afghanistan’s Pushtun belt, and offers some stinging criticism of America’s failure to take account of the human cost. I put six questions to Rosen: 1. On the war in Iraq, the wisdom of the Beltway pundits might be summed up this way: Bush’s efforts were floundering, then Petraeus saved the day with his surge, converting an ...

NOVANEWS   This is a technically better and a more complete video of the University of Michigan protest against IOF/Israeli propaganda than the one the link that I sent a few days ago takes you to.  This one spotlights close up a few of the placards the students were wearing to show the names and ages of children killed by the IOF, it allows us to hear some of the propaganda that the soldier is spouting, and shows not only the walk-out but also prior to it students present removing their jackets to reveal their red shirts and the placards, and does not end with the walk-out but continues to the subsequent meeting of those who participated and their discussion about their responsibility in countering Israeli propaganda--and all this for 5 minutes or a bit less. Do watch please and distribut...

NOVANEWS October 25, 2010 Kourosh Ziabari  veteranstoday.com Well before the birth of the first Zionists, Jewish bankers and capitalists had established themselves in Europe and the United States so it was not surprising that a number of them, beginning with Lord Rothschild in the early part of the century, became supporters of the Zionist project. Now, far and away, they make up the largest segment of individual donors to both political parties.       Jeffrey Blankfort is an American photojournalist, radio producer and Middle East analyst. He currently hosts radio programs on KZYX in Mendocino, CA and KPOO in San Francisco. Blankfort was formerly the editor of the Middle East Labor Bulletin and co-founder of the Labor Committee of the Middle East. In February 2002, he won a lawsuit again...

NOVANEWS October 25, 2010 by Debbie Menon Alan Hart Esq, former reporter with the BBC, weighs in with Mark Glenn of The Ugly Truth, viz a viz the latest events taking place in his former stomping grounds–the Middle East and Palestine. Of the more important topics discussed— Zionism and Peace are Incompatable, the new piece written by Alan Hart where he makes clear the fact that we cannot serve two masters–either Zionism or peace, but not both. An articulate Mark Glenn, has a rational and honest approach. I liked the phrase he used, “the poisoned well”. Weaning the Americans off the poisoned well is the job ahead.  The world needs a media capability called the ‘real press’ to do this. Also some interesting comments by Alan Hart about JCS Michael Mullen’s one day visit to Israel, which n...

NOVANEWS October 24, 2010 by Debbie Menon Catholic bishops in the Middle East urged the United Nations Saturday to end the Israeli occupation of Arab lands at the end of a meeting chaired by Pope Benedict XVI. In a final statement of their two-week synod, the bishops and patriarchs of the region’s Catholic churches said the citizens of the Middle East “call upon the international community, particularly the United Nations, conscientiously to work to find a peaceful, just and definitive solution in the region, through the application of the Security Council’s resolutions and taking the necessary legal steps to put an end to the occupation of the different Arab territories. “The Palestinian people will thus have an independent and sovereign homeland where they can live with dignity and s...

NOVANEWS West Bank: Reports of Torture in Palestinian Detention Two New Cases Among More Than 100 in 2010 Alleged Against Security Services October 20, 2010 Palestinian inmates in a prison in Jericho. © 2008 Reuters Related Materials:  Internal Fight Under Cover of War More Coverage:  More Human Rights Watch reporting on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories The reports of torture by Palestinian security services keep rolling in. President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad are well aware of the situation. They need to reverse this rampant impunity and make sure that those responsible are prosecuted. Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch (Jerusalem) - The Palestinian Authority should promptly investigate the alleged torture of two detainee...

NOVANEWS Would Israel wage a 2nd Cast Lead war on Gaza? Uncategorized October 23, 2010 by crescentandcross  by Saud Abu Ramadan GAZA, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) — Over the past few weeks, minor militant groups based in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Islamic Hamas movement, had escalated their daily homemade projectiles attacks at southern Israel, where the Israeli army carried out limited retaliatory attacks against specific targets. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced recently that Hamas owns anti-aircraft rockets. This was the first open statement from an Israeli official claiming that Hamas possesses anti-aircraft missiles, which would threaten Israeli airforces’ mastery of the sky over Gaza Strip. However, despite the recent escalation, Palestinian observers rul...

NOVANEWS Uncategorized October 23, 2010 by crescentandcross   Most Popular Content All  A Personal Message from Father Elias Zahlawi, a Syrian Catholic priest to Pastor Terry Jones 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? Izzie and Zvi run a travel agency/ tour guide business in Tel Aviv. Business is bad, what with the fact that the world economy is crashing, much due to all the various Bernie Madoff’s in the financial sectors and the fact that the heartbeat of the world’s economy, America, has gone bankrupt fighting 2 disastrous wars for Israel. In addition to this, people ‘round the world are more and more calling it quits viz a viz their love affair wit...

NOVANEWS IDF probes top officers on Gaza war strike that killed 21 family members In Uncategorized October 23, 2010 by crescentandcross Senior army officers are under investigation for authorizing an air strike in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead that killed 21 members of the same family despite possibly receiving warnings from subordinates that there could be civilians in the area. One of those involved in authorizing the strike was then-Givati Brigade commander Col. Ilan Malka. A security source told Haaretz that the Military Police probe into the incident turned out to be particularly complex, and added that this is “explosive and highly sensitive material,” which casts a shadow on senior figures in the military. If a decision is made to bring charges against those involved, the sou...

NOVANEWS In This Issue... Association for Civil Rights in Israel on democracy’s heart attack (Long) More Recent Articles Search The Only Democracy? Association for Civil Rights in Israel on democracy’s heart attack (Long) From the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, reprinted by permission.  Ed’s note: This is long, but close enough to our mission to warrant reprinting  in full. Here you have the definite guide to anti-democracy bills in the Israeli Knesset, some that will be familiar to readers of this blog, some that even close followers of Israeli democracy will be unaware of. Did you know that the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) might consider banning face veils? Or that there was a bill to restrict the Israeli cinema? Or that Isr...