Archive 2012

Hamas speaks

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Hamas speaks

A Hamas official insists that a ‘legacy of suffering’ under Israel is what fuels Palestinian resistance.

By Mousa Abu Marzook
January 6, 2009

From Damascus — While Americans may believe that the current violence in Gaza began Dec. 27, in fact Palestinians have been dying from bombardments for many weeks. On Nov. 4, when the Israeli-Palestinian truce was still in effect but global attention was turned to the U.S. elections, Israel launched a "preemptive" airstrike on Gaza, alleging intelligence about an imminent operation to capture Israeli soldiers; more assaults took place throughout the month.

Israels lies

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Israel’s Lies

Henry Siegman

Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a
number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that
Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed
and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to
destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that
Hamas is a terrorist organisation, part of a global jihadi network; and
that Israel has acted not only in its own defence but on behalf of an
international struggle by Western democracies against this network.
I am not aware of a single major American newspaper, radio station or
TV channel whose coverage of the assault on Gaza questions this version
of events. Criticism of Israel’s actions, if any (and there has been none
from the Bush administration), has focused instead on whether the IDF’s
carnage is proportional to the threat it sought to counter, and whether it
is taking adequate measures to prevent civilian casualties.

Dismantling the lobby

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Dismantling the lobby

By Ramzy Baroud

One cannot emphasise enough the stranglehold Israel’s lobbying infrastructure has on US foreign policy. The36of recent weeks undoubtedly attest to this.

“The special relationship” that has been historically fostered between the US and Israel in fact is often a relationship of leverage, manipulation and intimidation, and often leads to the US supporting actions or resolutions that stand at complete odds with the interests of the American people.

A pure state is a pipe dream Isaraelã‚

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

A ‘pure state’ is a pipe dream, IsraelÂ
XOLELA MANGCU

THE idea of Israel remaining a purely Jewish state is incompatible with the existence of a growing Arab population in that country. It is also incredible that in the 21st century, we have political practices and ideologies that are reminiscent of the ethnic nationalism of the late 19th century and early 20th century. That is the period during which ethnic nationalism led to the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe.

Is it fathomable, then, that people who were the biggest victims of those evil movements could turn around to visit such evil on others? The rightward shift in Israeli politics is troubling precisely because that is what it portends.