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NOVANEWS Israel is sliding toward McCarthyism and racism By David Landau "In every generation a man is to consider himself as if he personally experienced the Exodus from Egypt." That is the central message of the Haggadah, of the seder night and indeed of Passover itself - the Festival of Freedom. The message isn't necessarily confined to the experience of the Hebrew slaves, who were delivered from bondage. The entire epic of the Exodus is meaningful. Our generation, in particular, the generation of renaissance and occupation, might do well to consider the narrative from the Egyptian perspective. In other words, how does a society professing the noblest values toward the Other - "In the best of the land bring your father and your brothers to live," Pharaoh urges Joseph (Genesis 47:6); "th...

NOVANEWS By Moshe Yaroni The Reut Institute in Israel produced a report that elicited some harsh responses last week. The report analyzed what it called “the global de-legitimization movement.” Reut’s de-legitimizers constitute much, though not all, of the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). It basically encompasses all those activists around the world who eschew the two-state solution and believe that only by casting Israel as a pariah state and eventually transforming it into a one-person-one-vote democracy can the conflict with the Palestinians be resolved. I’ve been waiting for the full Reut report to come out so I can write my own analysis of it, but based on the executive summary and the small elaboration I read in Ha’aretz, as well as some of the Hebrew that ...

NOVANEWS zionist construction is threatening to render a two-state solution impossible. By Trudy Rubin Inquirer Opinion Columnist President Obama is angry at Israel for announcing new building plans in a disputed area of Jerusalem - while Vice President Biden was visiting. Obama's wrath misses the real significance of the incident. Lawmakers who lambaste the administration for criticizing Israel are even further off base. The fuss has been focused on the timing of the announcement, which embarrassed Biden. But the flap is really about something far more crucial than timing: the danger that prospects for a two-state solution will be choked off before new negotiations ever gain ground. Israel's ongoing construction in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem - despite a limited freeze - will...

NOVANEWS What the Reut Institute really wants: NOT one person-one vote A week after his visit to AIPAC, I am left wondering if it is possible for anyone other than Bibi Netanyahu to so beautifully embody the notion of “strutting victimization”. And yet, it’s not just Bibi who can taunt Israel’s primary sponsor, the United States, with plans for endless settlement expansion while simultaneously playing the powerless victim. (I’m sure my Israeli friends have much to say on this phenomenon.) The people at Israel’s Reut Institute have also mastered this unpleasant juxtaposition of aggression and powerlessness. As Carol Sanders put it so beautifully in The Only Democracy?: Reut Institute, a leading Israeli national security and socioeconomic policy think tank, has released its preliminary repor...

NOVANEWS U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards March 29, 2010 by Michael Leon · 1 Comment Share No. 245-10 ——————————————– CONTRACTS: DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Philips Medical Systems, Andover, Mass., is being awarded a maximum $77,172,660 fixed-price with economic price adjustment contract for patient monitoring systems, subsystems, accessories, consumables, spare/repair parts, and training. There are no other locations of performance. Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. There were originally 17 proposals solicited with nine responses. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract is exercising the first option year. The date of performance completion is March 29, 2011. The Defense...

NOVANEWS This summary briefing comes to us through the courtesy of Just Foreign Policy. Summary: U.S./Top News 1) US and NATO troops firing from passing convoys and military checkpoints have killed 30 Afghans and wounded 80 others since last summer, but in no instance did the victims prove to be a danger to troops, the New York Times reports. “We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat,” said Gen. McChrystal. Such shootings have not dropped off, despite new rules from McChrystal intended to reduce them. The persistence of the shootings has led to growing resentment among Afghans angry at the impunity with which the troops operate – a friction that has turned villages firmly against the occupation, the Times says. 2) The number of U.S....

NOVANEWS Junk food 'as addictive as heroin and smoking'. Bingeing on junk food is as addictive as smoking or taking drugs and could cause compulsive eating and obesity, a study has found. By Andrew Hough Junk food 'as addictive as heroin and smoking' American researchers found burgers, chips and sausages programmed a human brain into craving even more sugar, salt and fat laden food. Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida found laboratory rats became addicted on a bad diet just like people who became dependent on cocaine and heroin. While the findings cannot be directly transferred to human obesity, it found that overconsumption of high-calorie food triggered addiction-like responses in the brain. But the study, published online in Nature Neuroscience, suggests for the firs...

NOVANEWS By Chris Hedges (Page 2) When someone like Palin posts a map with cross hairs on the districts of Democrats, when she says “Don’t Retreat, Instead—RELOAD!” there are desperate people cleaning their weapons who listen. When Christian fascists stand in the pulpits of megachurches and denounce Barack Obama as the Antichrist, there are messianic believers who listen. When a Republican lawmaker shouts “baby killer” at Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak, there are violent extremists who see the mission of saving the unborn as a sacred duty. They have little left to lose. We made sure of that. And the violence they inflict is an expression of the violence they endure. These movements are not yet full-blown fascist movements. They do not openly call for the extermination...

NOVANEWS By Chris Hedges The language of violence always presages violence. I watched it in war after war from Latin America to the Balkans. The impoverishment of a working class and the snuffing out of hope and opportunity always produce angry mobs ready to kill and be killed. A bankrupt, liberal elite, which proves ineffectual against the rich and the criminal, always gets swept aside, in times of economic collapse, before thugs and demagogues emerge to play to the passions of the crowd. I have seen this drama. I know each act. I know how it ends. I have heard it in other tongues in other lands. I recognize the same stock characters, the buffoons, charlatans and fools, the same confused crowds and the same impotent and despised liberal class that deserves the hatred it engenders. “We are...

NOVANEWS REAL TERRORISTS ARE RARE AND USUALLY EASILY CAUGHT ALWAYS ASK: “WHO GAINS FROM THIS? By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor Every time there is a terrorist attack, the nations blamed say that it was a “false flag” operation. This is what America did to cover up My Lai. We were lying. Germans claimed Poland invaded Germany in 1939. An educated guess is that 75% of terrorist attacks we hear of were staged, never happened or were done by “radical groups” that were first infiltrated, then controlled and eventually financed and supplied by intelligence agencies. Intelligence agencies are, in actuality, the biggest terrorist organizations in the world. The CIA has blown up more buses, airplanes and markets than any almost anyone else. The Mossad may be number one, followed by, well, ...