Media Review Network – Page 1337 – Providing Context and Substance

Israeli women serving prison time for refusal to join idf

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Tim King Salem-News.com

"Many were incarcerated again and again as they refused to enlist after their release from prison" – Israeli Peace Activist Gila Svirsky

israeli women

Omer Goldman refused to participate in illegal aggression against Palestinian people and was sent to prison.
Photo courtesy: gilasvirsky.com

(SALEM, Ore.) – Americans are raised to believe that Israel is an ally of the United States, and for most of us growing up here, there was no question about it. In many ways it is true that Israel is a U.S. ally, and in many ways it is not.

female soldiers

Women of Israel are expected
to serve in the military service

The U.S. is a country with both freedom of religion, and a declared separation of church and state. There has been plenty of religious persecution here over the years, but by and large and for the most part, especially today, Americans are able to worship how and where they please.

One of the biggest conflicts for some, is the fact that Israel is a religious state. There is no separation of church and state in the Jewish State, so if you don’t belong to the right culture and religion, you’re more or less out of luck.

Your neighbor could be a Palestinian and a lifelong friend, but you as an Israeli can not sell your house to him, even if you want to, because he is Palestinian. Israel’s government and military are utterly and completely prejudiced. 1

Hamas leader abbas netanyahu meet serves us

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: Ma’an News A gency)

Gaza – Ma’an Exclusive – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama is part of a policy that serves US, not Palestinian interests, senior Hamas official Ayman Taha told Ma’an on Friday.

“Unfortunately, what is actually happening is only an attempt to impose the US vision by making repeated attempts to launch negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, and this is unacceptable,” said Taha in an extended interview in his office in Gaza.

Taha said that US pressure on Israel to halt settlement activity as weak, biased, and non-binding. Instead, he said, the US should pressure Israel to end the entire occupation.
Asked what he meant by the word “occupation,” Taha said, “We were occupied twice, once in 1948 and again in 1967, and in Hamas we have a vision to end the occupation and go back to 1967 borders, and the American administration should work at least to end the occupation of 1967, which until now it has not done.”

War crimes and denial

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

by Uri Avnery,

(source:ANTIWAR.COM)

Is there no limit to the wiles of those dastardly anti-Semites?

Now they have decided to slander the Jews with another blood libel. Not the old accusation of slaughtering Christian children to use their blood for baking Passover matzoth, as in the past, but of the mass slaughter of women and children in Gaza.

And who did they put at the head of the commission which was charged with this task? Neither a British Holocaust-denier nor a German neo-Nazi, nor even an Iranian fanatic, but of all people a Jewish judge who bears the very Jewish name of Goldstone (originally Goldstein, of course). And not just a Jew with a Jewish name, but a Zionist, whose daughter, Nicole, is an enthusiastic Zionist who once "made Aliyah" and speaks fluent Hebrew. And not just a Jewish Zionist, but a South African who opposed apartheid and was appointed to the country’s Constitutional Court when that system was abolished.
All this in order to defame the most moral army in the world, fresh from waging the most just war in history!

Cia probe must go to highest level un rights head

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

The U.S. Justice Department named a special prosecutor this week to investigate CIA interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States under then-President George W. Bush.

By Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters

GENEVA – The U.S. prosecutor’s investigation into alleged criminal CIA interrogation techniques must go right to the top political level, the chief UN rights official said on Thursday.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, 67, in a wide-ranging interview with Reuters, urged European and other countries to resettle Guantanamo detainees so that President Barack Obama can close the U.S.-run prison in Cuba by year-end.