Pakistan – Breaking News

Israeli soldier: Most of the Israeli public and much of the media is blind to the fact that hundreds of Palestinians have been cut to pieces by Israeli fire power

Chris McGreal in Tel Aviv The Guardian, Saturday 17 January 2009

The call came at 11pm on a Saturday. Yitzchak Ben Mocha’s mobile flashed up "unidentified number" but he knew who it was. A recorded voice ordered him to report for duty at eight the next morning. As he packed his uniform he wondered if he was heading to prison. The 25-year-old paratrooper was about to tell his commanders that not only would he refuse to join Israel’s war in Gaza but would not serve in any capacity that helped perpetuate the conflict.

He reported for duty and was ordered to erect tents for combat soldiers.

Read More »We are creating suicide bombers

Reviewed by Iqbal Jassat

On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History

A Book by:

Norman G Finkelstein 

(ISBN 1-84467-049-X Verso 2005)

The imminent visit to South Africa by Norman G. Finkelstein following a major new initiative by S.A NGOs to mount a legal campaign seeking the arrest and prosecution of Israeli war criminals and those who hold SA citizenship and participated in the recent brutal military onslaught in Gaza, is anticipated with great excitement.

After all, Finkelstein whose earlier international bestseller The Holocaust Industry, created a huge stir in Jewish circles – particularly in the United States and Israel, for daring to posit a distinction between the Nazi holocaust and The Holocaust. The Nazi holocaust is the systematic extermination of Jews during World War II. Distinctly different to it is The Holocaust that Finkelstein describes as “the instrumentalisation of the Nazi holocaust by American Jewish elites and their supporters.”

Read More »Book review beyond chutzpah

British charity aiding Palestinian refugees ordered to close

Assed Baig

Interpal, a British charity providing development and relief for
Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, has
been served notification from the Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) that
the charity’s account will be closed as of 8 December. This comes as
a result of Lloyds TSB, the Islamic Bank’s clearing bank, serving
notice to "cease all dealings with Interpal," according to a
statement released by the charity.

The notice comes into effect as of 8 December 2008, during the Muslim
festival of Eid al-Adha, a time when Muslims are encouraged to give
charity.

Read More »British charity aiding palestinian refugees ordered to close

A new Afghan nightmare

Ramzy Baroud

When US envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke met with Afghanistan’s "democratically" installed President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Feb. 14, he may have just learned of the historic significance of the following day. Feb. 15 commemorates the end of the bloody Russian campaign against Afghanistan (August 1978-February 1989)

But it is unlikely that Holbrooke will absorb the magnitude of that historic lesson. Both he and the new US President Barack Obama are convinced that the missing component for winning the war in Afghanistan is a greater commitment, as in doubling troops, increasing military spending, and, by way of winning hearts and minds, investing more in developing the country. That combination, the US administration believes, will eventually sway Afghans from supporting the Taleban, tribal militias, Pashtun nationalists and other groups. The latter is waging a guerrilla struggle in various parts of the country, mostly in the south, to oust Karzai’s government and foreign occupation forces. While Kabul was considered an "oasis of calm" – by Jonathan Steele’s account – during the Soviet rule, it’s nowhere close to that depiction under the rule of the US and its NATO allies, who had plenty of time, eight long years, to assert their control, but failed.

Read More »A new Afghan nightmare