World Palestine Newswire Archive

Until 2006, the Israeli-Palestinian political landscape was dominated almost exclusively by three major players: the Labor and Likud parties in Israel, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) largest faction, Fatah. That year brought a dramatic change, however, with the success of Israel’s newly formed Kadima party in the elections for the 17th Knesset and of Hamas in the Palestinian legislative elections.

Ever since Hamas was voted into power in Gaza as a protest vote against Fatah (the same reason why the MB won so many seats in the Egyptian parliamentary elections), and democracy in the Palestinian territories has suffered a major blow. The blow became a full on gushing head wound the moment Hamas started its coup, and kicked the Fatah people out, create what got immediately dubbed Hamastan. And ever since that day, the blockade went up and stayed up, and some of us, including me, cheered, thinking it was a fitting punishment for big bad Hamas, and that soon enough there would be a second election, I even hoped for an open revolt, where the Palestinian people would throw out Hamas from power on its fat Jihady ass. In the throngs of our self-righteous indignation and punishment, we forgot that Hamas, now that it is in power, was going to do what every islamist organization in power would do: Destroy the democratic institutions that brought them there, and clamp down to solidify their power big time. And that's what they did.

Students at the University of Rochester (UR) and their supporters from the community occupied a campus building February 6 in solidarity with the victims of Israel's siege of Gaza--and in a matter of half a day declared victory after winning important concessions from the administration.

Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center
www.imemc.org, for Monday, February 9th, 2009.

A children's demonstration for the children of Gaza and for
all children of Palestine took place in Whitehall opposite Downing
Street on Sunday 8 February. Pictures Copyright (C) 2009 Peter Marshall, all rights reserved.

Zionism seeks "the restoration of tribalism in the guise of a modern, highly militaralized and aggressive state. (It) cut Jews off from (their) history and led to a fateful identity of interests with antisemitism (becoming) the only thing that united them.

Zionism justifies a Jewish ethnocracy with built-in structural inequalities. The Law of Return is for Jews alone. All laws are for Jews. On issues of land, housing, education and most everything, Jewish favoritism discriminates against Arabs.

Using an inside source, an Israeli libertarian communist constructs an analysis of the picture behind the scenes at the recent wildcat of Israel Railways workers.

Over the December period, Israel started shelling Gaza in a major offensive against the civilian population who individually paid the price with massive fatalities, dismembered limbs and phosphorous burns penetrating skin to bone.
Sharp blades of all sizes and shapes, lethal slivers raining down slicing and piecing, amputating; arms from bodies, heads from necks...
Gazans were prevented from leaving the strip, trapped inside as the knives and fire rained down.
In Nablus people clung to their TV screens, eyes spread- eagled wide, unable to work as the seemingly endless deformities of destruction paraded night after night.

Condi Rice: “What we’re seeing here, in a sense, is the growing birth pangs of a new Middle East.”

Jon Stewart: “Birth pangs? Yes, I believe today’s contraction took out a city block.”

Neoconservatism thinking, according to E.D. Kain (via Sullivan), goes like this: The Islamic world is nothing like the Western world. We have few, if any, of the same values and virtually no historical commonality save our shared, centuries-old conflict with one another. The Islamic world, by and large, has none of the laws or customs necessary to develop an organic democratic society the way Western nations have. Therefore, the only way to achieve peace with the Islamic world is for them to adopt our notions of plurality, democracy, and humanism. They won’t do this on their own because of their lack of shared values, and so it follows that we must intervene on their behalf to impose these values, and fashion democracies for them in our image.

'I have some good news and some bad news,' the sergeant in the joke tells his men. 'The good news is that you are going to change your dirty socks. The bad news is that you are going to exchange them among yourselves.'

Part II: Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law: What Remedy?

Part I: What Law Applies?

Propaganda is most effective when subtly planted and the reader remains unaware that a commentary is actually indoctrination. Sometimes the writer is not cognizant that what he has published has been moved by its propaganda effect – sources for the material are actually misleading and publication is facilitated when the commentary fits a particular agenda.

Over 50 demonstrators and rather more police blockaded the main UK depot of Israeli company Carmel Agrexco today, Sat 7 Feb, to demand a boycott of Israeli goods and in particular the flowers and fruit which they bring from Palestine, from Israeli settlements and from Israel.
Pictures copyright (C) 2009 Peter Marshall

The Histadrut trade union intends to ask the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) for assistance with the planned boycott of Israeli ships by dockers in South Africa. “The union in South Africa is against anything connected to Israel, and in the past even objected to a cooperation agreement we signed with the Palestinian transport workers union,” said Transport Workers Union chairman Avi Edri.

We have spent the last month meticulously reading, watching, listening to and analysing what the UK media had to say about Israel’s operation in Gaza (within the limits of our scope of monitoring). Our objective has been to see whether the coverage was balanced, impartial and factually accurate. Had any lessons been learnt since Lebanon 2006 when, in the eyes of many, the media got it so wrong?

Three weeks ago Dundee University did not have a Stop the War society. Now this newly formed society, which takes support from a number of different organisations active at the university, has had some major success in having demands met. The movement has snow-balled and after several meetings, a march and significant and constant pressure being put upon the Union (including forcing an EGM) DU Stop the War continues to push for action against the perceived apartheid at the hands of Israel. This article explains the actions of the last week and particularly the EGM which had the largest attendance in years.

The spectacle of tanks back from the battlefield with the blue and white Star of David flapping from their turrets, the faces of the young soldiers, their body language—all leave no doubt concerning Israel's victory. If we compare this pullback from Gaza with the one from Lebanon over two years past, there is no need for extensive commentary: Israel has retrieved the pride and reputation of its army, which had been badly damaged by that other war in the north. The world has been reminded that the Middle East contains but a single military power worthy of the name. Deterrent capability, the magical force that is supposed to protect Israel from its enemies, has returned in full strength. Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, who promised to correct his earlier failures in accordance with the findings of the Winograd Inquiry, has indeed come through.

Israeli officials said they plan to make it harder for the Arabic television network al-Jazeera to operate in Israel and the West Bank. Media reports said Israel will not renew the work visas of some Israeli-based al-Jazeera employees, and that the network's reporters will have less access to news conferences and briefings.