Zionism – Breaking News

Valedictory hot air

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Valedictory hot air

Rice’s last and final visit to Israel/Palestine is conclusive proof that the neocons achieved nothing and could offer nothing, writes Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah

The 24th visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Palestine-Israel this week didn’t differ much from her previous visits, especially in substance. Rice, who held meetings with Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, followed by joint press conferences in both West Jerusalem and Ramallah, essentially regurgitated the same platitudes and false promises she voiced ever since she assumed the top diplomatic post nearly four years ago.

Finding virtually nothing to clutch to in terms of hard achievements in the so- called peace process, Rice put a brave face on her apparent colossal failure to get Israel to end its decades-old occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. She told PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who seemed to be coming to terms with the inanity of the process, that the near end of the Bush administration didn’t mean the end of prospects for peace. She added that she would brief the upcoming Obama administration on the status of Israeli-Palestinian talks so that the new administration wouldn’t have to start from scratch.

Public launch of the palestinian civil society strategic position paper

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

PALESTINE UPDATE 64

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)*

Public Launch of the Palestinian Civil Society Strategic Position Paper

Towards the UN Durban Review Conference

Hundreds of international civil society organizations and networks endorse the Position Paper titled "United Against Apartheid, Colonialism and Occupation: Dignity & Justice for the Palestinian People" on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

Today, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Palestinian civil society, represented by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign National Committee (BNC), launches its strategic position paper as a basis for anti-racist intervention at and beyond the UN Durban Review Conference.

I got bush to shame Rice

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

I got Bush to ‘shame’ Rice

By Ron Kampeas · January 12, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ehud Olmert reportedly said that he persuaded President Bush to abstain from a U.N. Security Council call for a cease-fire, leaving Condoleezza Rice "shamed."

"She was left shamed," AFP, the French news agency, quoted the Israeli prime minister as telling an audience in Ashkelon on Monday, referring to the U.S. secretary of state. "A resolution that she prepared and arranged, and in the end she did not vote in favor."

No headlines as epic journey to Gaza nears end

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

No Headlines As Epic Journey To Gaza Nears End

British convey enters Gaza, Monday, March 9. (Aljazeera)

By Sonja Karkar

An epic journey across eight countries is nearing its end. Gaza is almost within sights of the weary drivers and their navigators. On Day 21, the British convoy leaders decided to by-pass the towns of Benghazi and Bayda in Libya after consulting with Libyan officials to cut the time it would take to get to Gaza. This meant a desert crossing of some 400km – enduring not what many would think to be hot and stifling conditions, but rather the bitter cold of winter winds unbroken by vast expanses of emptiness. Perhaps few thought of what would await them on this journey when they first set out, but certainly, despite the hardships no one is complaining. What the Palestinians in Gaza are suffering is so much more and that is uppermost in everyone’s minds.

Nevertheless, poor and oftentimes non-existent phone signals, no landmarks, breakdowns, sandstorms and security restrictions are just some of the hiccups that have made the epic journey a writer’s dream story – after all, there are some 300 people sharing in the experience and each with their own story to tell. Under normal circumstances, it would be splashed across pages and TV screens in large headlines with a blow-by-blow account of various travellers’ tales. Not so on this voyage. The media is strangely silent, seemingly uninterested even in the historic opening of the border between Morocco and Algeria that has been closed since 1994.