Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren once again proving how even the Israeli government cannot justify its own policies while trying to claim they want peace with the Palestinians

• Can Venture Capital Save The World? - Forbes

  Novogratz plays the role of auditor because, as CEO and founder of the Acumen Fund, helping people starts with financial due diligence. In April Acumen sank $1.9 million into the bank in exchange for an 18% stake, one small investment in a decadelong experiment in charitable giving. Instead of shoveling aid dollars to causes or governments that give away life-­sustaining goods and services, Acumen espouses investing money wisely in small-time entrepreneurs in the developing world who strive to solve problems, from mosquito netting to bottled water to affordable housing. It’s a new twist on the old adage about teaching a man to fish, except that Novogratz wants to build an entire fish market.

• Saudi reshuffle boosts economy team | beyondbrics

  King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia appointed two heavyweights to head up the ministry of economy and planning, and the ministry of commerce and industry at a time when consolidating economic planning is crucial to maximizing the benefits of the huge spending earmarked for the coming years.

• IDF agrees to expansion of West Bank settlement - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

  ** But yeah, clearly, Israel wants peace...***

  Israel's military establishment has approved the establishment of a new, permanent neighborhood and a farm near the West Bank settlement of Efrat. The projects will go beyond the community's current built-up area, constituting an effective expansion of the Etzion Bloc of settlements toward the north and north-east. After they are completed, Jewish settlement in northern Gush Etzion will reach the edges of Bethlehem's southernmost suburbs

• Backlash for Lowe's as ads pulled from Muslim show - Yahoo! News

  Lowe's Home Improvement has found itself facing a backlash after the retail giant pulled ads from a reality show about American Muslims. The retail giant stopped advertising on TLC's "All-American Muslim" after a conservative group known as the Florida Family Association complained, saying the program was "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."

• Perry continues campaign push in Iowa, faces hecklers – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

  **Oh Republican candidates...**

  "No greater example of it than this administration sending millions of dollars into the solar industry, and we lost that money," Perry began. "I want to say it was over $500 million that went to the country Solynda."

• Peter Beinart Is Right—or, a One-State Solution Is Inevitable if Settlements Continue - Atlantic Mobile

  A number of Goldblog readers have forwarded me this video of Peter Beinart speaking at the recent General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. These readers are critical of Peter's assertion that Israel is, in essence, forcing a one-state solution on itself by continuing the occupation and settlement of the West Bank. I watched the video, and, alas, I don't find much to dispute with what Peter says. This isn't the easiest thing for me to acknowledge; I disagree with much of Peter's Middle East political analysis, and I disagree with many of his peacemaking suggestions. But he's not wrong about the most crucial thing: Israel will soon enough be forced to face a choice: Grant citizenship to the Arabs of the West Bank, or cease to call itself a Jewish democracy. Here is a bit of what Peter said:

• Lauren Scruggs, Model, Walks Into Plane Propeller, Survives (VIDEO)

  A 23-year-old model and fashion editor is lucky to be alive after she accidentally walked into a small plane's propeller on Saturday. Lauren Scruggs, of Plano, Texas, was getting off a small private plane after looking at Christmas lights around the area when she walked into the moving propeller, Fox Dallas reports.

• Alec Baldwin: My Flying Lesson

  First off, I would like to apologize to the other passengers onboard the American Airlines flight that I was thrown off of yesterday. It was never my intention to inconvenience anyone with my "issue" with a certain flight attendant.

• Saudi government considers banning smartphones for public employees | Telecoms | AMEinfo.com

  The Saudi government is considering banning all public employees from using smartphones and tablets, such as iPhones, iPads, and BlackBerry devices, during working hours after receiving complaints from the public,

• Kuwait set to open $3.3bn terminal in 2016 | Aviation | AMEinfo.com

  *** Hmmm, somehow I don't see the need for 25 million passengers to commute via Kuwait... ***

  The Kuwaiti ministry of public works has said a new, KD900m ($3.3bn) passenger terminal presently under construction at Kuwait International Airport is due to open in September 2016, Zawya Dow Jones has reported. The new terminal will have capacity to accommodate 13 million passengers annually in the first stage, with the ability to increase this number to 25 million and to 50 million in later stages.

• Facebook makes Gowalla acquisition | Media and Advertising | AMEinfo.com

  Facebook has acquired location sharing service Gowalla for an undisclosed sum, CNN has reported. Most of Gowalla's employees, including founder Josh Williams, will move to Facebook's offices in Palo Alto. The team will work on Facebook's Timeline feature, which launched at this year's F8 conference and is gradually rolling out to Facebook's 800 million members.

• Putin's Treasure Dive Find Was Staged: Spokesman

  ** I don't believe it, it was staged!?!?***

  The widely publicized incident in which Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pulled up ancient Greek jug fragments from the seabed on a diving expedition was staged, his chief spokesman said. The August dive in the Kerch Strait that connects the Black and Azov seas was reported extensively in Russian and overseas media. Putin is noted for his habit of appearing in vigorous and adventurous settings, including fishing while stripped to the waist and riding with leather-clad motorcyclists.

• President Obama calls on Bill Clinton to help unveil energy efficiency program for office buildings - 44 - The Washington Post

  President Obama will announce on Friday a partnership with private companies to invest $4 billion toward making federal government and commercial office buildings more energy-efficient, a program the administration predicted could create tens of thousands of jobs. The program is part of a Better Buildings Initiative that Obama outlined in his State of the Union address in January to increase the energy efficiency in commercial buildings by 20 percent by 2020.

• Nearly half German city to evacuate Sunday for defusing of WWII era bomb - News - Stripes

  About 45,000 residents of the German city of Koblenz, nearly half of the city’s population, are under evacuation orders Sunday following the discovery of what local officials said was one of the largest unexploded bombs ever found, believed to have been dropped by the British Royal Air Force during World War II. The nearly 4,000-pound bomb, packed with more than 3,000 pounds of explosives, as well as other unexploded ordnance, were discovered in the Rhine River, where the water levels have dropped significantly due to a lack of rain over the past few weeks, according to local authorities.

• 5 Corporations Who Owe Americans Thanks This Thanksgiving Day | Death and Taxes

  Forming a corporation means never having to say you’re sorry. It’s very structure is built around the idea that no one is culpable for wrong action. However, since Citizens United vs. FEC dictated to every American citizen that corporations are people (in their totality), we think that like any good person, they should give thanks where required. Here are five corporations and banks who were either bailed out in recent years or who pay next to nothing in federal taxes.

• Dubai to star in shoot-'em-up computer game - Media - ArabianBusiness.com

  A shoot-em-up computer game which pits gamers against a hostile sandstorm-ravaged Dubai is set to be released next year, its creators have said. Publisher 2K Games said that its much anticipated military shooter Spec Ops: The Line will be released in spring 2012.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Series of videos portraying continued Israeli expropriation of Palestinian land in the West Bank. Incredibly well done films.

• Israel West Bank Annexations Considered

  Israel is considering annexing major West Bank settlement blocs if the Palestinians unilaterally seek world recognition of a state, an Israeli official said Tuesday – moves that would deal a grave blow to prospects for negotiating a peace deal between the two sides. Israel has refrained from taking such a diplomatically explosive step for four decades. The fact that it is considering doing so reflects how seriously it is concerned by the Palestinian campaign to win international recognition of a state in the absence of peacemaking.

• Saudi Arabia pledges to stamp out corruption - Politics & Economics - ArabianBusiness.com

  A senior Saudi Arabia minister on Monday said the kingdom would leave no stone unturned in its fight against corruption. Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, Saudi's second deputy prime minister and minister of interior, made the pledge as he met with the man put in charge of a new anti-corruption unit.

• Abu Dhabi to pursue nuclear power, undeterred by Japan - Energy - ArabianBusiness.com

  Abu Dhabi will build a nuclear power plant even after an earthquake and tsunami in Japan damaged generators there and released radioactive material, the head of the Gulf emirate’s utility said today. “It’s a technology we should bring to the region,” Abdullah Saif al-Nuaimi, director general of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority said. Newer technology than that used in Japan’s damaged plants would make Abu Dhabi’s reactors safer, he said.

• Kuwaiti student harnesses solar power in sprinkler system

  A Kuwaiti high school student has managed to harness solar power and use it to run an irrigation system using sprinklers. The application aimed at reducing power consumption of irrigation systems and at best managing water resources, Saleh Mahdi Bu Salha told Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) on Monday. The innovation stores solar power into batteries which in turn run a sprinkler irrigation system's units strategically placed across a farm or field, he said.

• Pressure mounts on Kuwaiti govt to resign

  Political developments in Kuwait took a new turn yesterday with two Shiite MPs vowing to submit two grillings against the foreign and information ministers amid mounting pressure on the government to resign. MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan said he will file to grill Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah today while his fellow Shiite MP Saleh Ashour said he will file to grill Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah "within the next 48 hours".

• Syria lifting emergency law, official says - CNN.com

  Syria's emergency law, which has been in place nearly 50 years, is in the process of being lifted, a source close to the Syrian government said Sunday. The decision comes as the country grapples with deadly violence surrounding anti-government protests. Earlier, Reem Haddad, spokeswoman for the Syrian Information Ministry, told CNN that "it will be lifted." However, she could not say when.

• BBC News - Honduras drops arrest warrants for ousted Manuel Zelaya

  A Supreme Court judge in Honduras has dismissed three arrest warrants for former President Manuel Zelaya. The move allows Mr Zelaya to return without detention to Honduras, where he was ousted in a coup in June 2009. Judge Oscar Chincilla said Mr Zelaya still faced corruption charges over his plan while president to hold a vote on changing the constitution. Mr Zelaya has said the charges are politically motivated and he wanted them dropped.

• Did 'The Israel Lobby' Change Anything? - By Stephen M. Walt | Foreign Policy

  Five years ago this week, John Mearsheimer and I published The Israel Lobby in the London Review of Books. Our goal in writing the article (and subsequent book) was to break the taboo on discussions of the lobby's impact on U.S. foreign policy and to transform it into a topic that people could talk about openly and calmly. Because we believed the "special relationship" that the lobby had promoted was harmful to the United States and Israel (not to mention the Palestinians), we hoped that a more open discourse on this topic would move U.S. Middle East policy in a direction that would be better for almost everyone.

• Egypt tightens security for 'targeted' Al Baradei

  Cairo: Egyptian authorities have assigned a security guard for pro-reform campaigner Mohammad Al Baradei following reports that he faces the threat of assassination over his role in a popular revolt that toppled long-standing president Hosni Mubarak, an independent newspaper said on Monday.

• UAE cancels plans for Dubai, Abu Dhabi passenger rail link | Transport and Logistics | AMEinfo.com

  Richard Bowker, chief executive of Etihad Rail, has said that plans for a dedicated passenger link between Abu Dhabi and Dubai have been cancelled, The National has reported. "We may come back to it," Bowker said. Right now "it's all about priorities, it's all about focus." The company, formerly called Union Railway, said it is set to award the first construction contract for a freight line in the UAE's Western Region in the next two months.

• Shiite protesters rally in two Saudi villages

  Riyadh: Shiite protesters have staged rallies in two villages near Qatif in the oil-rich eastern province of Saudi Arabia, renewing demands for the release of prisoners and the withdrawal of Saudi forces in Bahrain in spite of requests from senior clerics to halt protests. About 400 people marched in Al Rabiya after Friday prayers, while 600 took to the streets of Al Awwamiya after mid-afternoon prayers carrying Saudi and Bahraini flags, residents said. The marches lasted for about one hour and the protesters demanded the release of nine prisoners held without trial since 1996 for their alleged role in the bombing of a US army complex in Al Khobar, an end to discrimination against the minority and the withdrawal of Saudi troops from Bahrain, said Fouad Ali, a resident of Al Awwamiya.

The New Israeli Left - The Nation

Well worth the read.

Excerpt:

Unlike traditional Israeli peace rallies, the West Bank demonstrations are led by Palestinians. The Jewish participants arrive at the invitation of local Palestinian committees, and they must accept the political and tactical choices of the local leadership. Although there is coordination, it’s the Palestinians who decide on the course of action and the level of confrontation with the army. The Israelis see themselves as guests.

“The joint struggle opens up a way for us to be supportive of the Palestinians without silencing them and appropriating their suffering,” says Ayala Shani, a longtime activist who attends the protests regularly. “It means that Palestinians are leading their own struggle for freedom, and Israelis have the opportunity to stand with them in solidarity.”

By AMY TEIBEL
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 2, 2011; 5:54 AM

JERUSALEM -- Jerusalem officials approved new housing for Jews in the heart of an Arab neighborhood, officials said Wednesday, infuriating Palestinians who see the growing Jewish presence in the city's war-won eastern sector as undermining their aspirations to statehood.

The approval further complicates efforts to restart deadlocked negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The municipality said the plan to build 14 apartments in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood met all the necessary conditions for approval.

Palestinians deplore any expansion of the Jewish presence in east Jerusalem because they hope to establish their future capital there.

The construction in Ras al-Amud will be another link in the chain of Jewish settlements around east Jerusalem's Old City, said Ziad Hamouri, head of the Palestinian Jerusalem Center for Socio-Economic Rights. He predicted it would create a new point of friction between settlers and longtime Arab residents of east Jerusalem.

"For the residents of Ras al-Amud, this will be very bad," Hamouri said. "They (the Jewish settlers) will expand. They attack residents, trying to create anger and anexiety and to push people to leave."

The fate of east Jerusalem, whose Old City is home to shrines sacred to Islam, Judaism and Christianity, is the most emotionally charged issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinians, like the rest of the international community, do not recognize Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem after capturing it from Jordan in 1967.

Israel maintains the annexation gives it the right to build in east Jerusalem without restriction.

The new housing is to be erected at the site of a former Israeli police station just outside the Old City. The station was vacated several years ago after the headquarters relocated to another disputed site, just outside Jerusalem in the West Bank.

Would you accept the label ‘anti-Zionist’ to characterise your views?

It depends what is ‘Zionism’. Because Zionism is a very fluid concept – who can define what is Zionism? If Zionism means the right of the Jews to have a state, I am a Zionist. If Zionism means occupation, I’m an anti-Zionist. So I never know how to answer this question. If Zionism means to have a Jewish state at the expense of being a democratic state, then I am anti-Zionist, because I truly believe those two definitions are contradictory – ‘Jewish’ and ‘democratic’. For me, Israel should be a democratic state.

A great interview with Gideon Levy of Haaretz. Well worth the read.

No Chance of Peace
September 1, 2010

Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. He is the author of "Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness."

If the Obama administration accepts the myth that dismantling settlements is impossible for Israel, there are no prospects for peace. The settlements are illegal under international law. Yet settlers have been pampered for more than 40 years, and their violence against Palestinians is consistently tolerated. Peace depends on the Israeli government rectifying the problem they and their predecessors created.

So long as Netanyahu fails to break with settler leaders and the U.S. vacillates on this issue, a just peace is far away..The settler enterprise is a deliberate strategic creation of Israel, beginning with the occupation in 1967. This enterprise has been indulged and enlarged by every Israeli government since then.

From the outset, this was a project to colonize and control Palestinian land. It still is. As Ariel Sharon said in 1998: "Everybody has to move; run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements, because everything we take now will stay ours. Everything we don't grab will go to them.”

Today, there are nearly 500,000 settlers living illegally in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The U.S. has only occasionally and timidly objected. This irresoluteness, coupled with millions in tax-exempt funding, amounts to complicity in the 40-fold expansion of settlements since 1972.

The U.S. and Israel demand that the Palestinians engage in everything short of civil war (including torture and repression) to protect Israel's security, and yet American leaders fail to demand that Israel confront its own Frankenstein. While a minority of settlers may resist a peace deal requiring their departure, many are there because of generous government subsidies. These settlers would leave if provided with suitable incentives. The U.S. could withhold some of the $3 billion given to Israel as military aid annually and divert it toward housing settlers within Israel's own borders.

But so long as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fails to break with settler leaders, including his own foreign minister, and the U.S. vacillates on this issue, a just peace is far away.

• Henry Siegman: Is Israel's Legitimacy Under Challenge?

  "There is therefore something bizarre in Israel's insistence that condemnations of its violations of international law are not intended to challenge the illegality of its settlements and continuing occupation but the legitimacy of its very existence. If Israel keeps it up, that insistence may well turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps Israel's right wing government believes that by accusing the international community of seeking to undermine its existence it will distract attention from an increasingly untenable claim that Israel is a model democracy that also enshrines Jewish values. Both claims have been undermined by its settlements policy and its determination to maintain the status quo, bringing into question the very foundation of America's "special relationship" with Israel."

• Work on 3rd Metro line causes sinkhole in Attaba | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

  "A new digging machine--dubbed the "Nefertari"--has caused a 5-centimeter deep, 2.25-meter long sinkhole on al-Geish Street in the downtown Cairo district of Attaba. The machine had been in the process of digging a tunnel for Cairo's third subway line."

• Chris Christie warns GOP on mosque - Maggie Haberman - POLITICO.com

  **Finally, one (relatively) sane Republican** "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a new national icon for the Republican Party thanks in part to his push for pension reforms, on Monday became the most prominent GOP figure to warn against "overreacting" to the threat of terror and painting "all of Islam" with the brush of terrorism amid the swirling controversy about the ground zero-area mosque. "

• Palin: Obama 'doesn't get' mosque - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com

  **No, Palin doesn't get it. She's a bigot** "“It sounds cliched to say that the president is disconnected from the American people on this issue, but how else do you describe it,” the former Alaska GOP governor said on Fox News. “He just doesn't get it, that this is an insensitive move on the part of those Muslims who want to build that mosque in this location. It feels like a stab in the heart to, collectively, Americans who still have that lingering pain from 9/11.” "

• Fareed Zakaria: Build the Ground Zero Mosque - Newsweek

  "Ever since 9/11, liberals and conservatives have agreed that the lasting solution to the problem of Islamic terror is to prevail in the battle of ideas and to discredit radical Islam, the ideology that motivates young men to kill and be killed. Victory in the war on terror will be won when a moderate, mainstream version of Islam—one that is compatible with modernity—fully triumphs over the world view of Osama bin Laden." Five years ago, the ADL honored me with its Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. I was thrilled to get the award from an organization that I had long admired. But I cannot in good conscience keep it anymore. I have returned both the handsome plaque and the $10,000 honorarium that came with it. I urge the ADL to reverse its decision. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain a reputation.

• Settlers Assault A Palestinian Woman In Hebron - International Middle East Media Center

  " A group of settlers assaulted a Palestinian woman in Al-Buweira area east of Hebron in the southern West Bank Friday morning. Suzan Sultan 51, was moved by local to the nearest medical clinic for treatment as she was suffering bruises in different parts of her body and head."

• Five comments on the Israel-Lebanon border clash and what it means by Daniel Levy - The Middle East Channel

  "The Syrian and Lebanese tracks, de-occupation and rights for the Palestinians, recognition and final borders for Israel, the broader Arab Peace Initiative, diplomatic efforts with Iran, and even relations with Turkey are all linked. It is time for a policy that recognizes that and wraps its head around an inclusive new approach to building an architecture for regional stability and security. "

• ADL: If mosque-builders really wanted to promote reconcilation, they'd move - The Plum Line

  "This goes considerably further than ADL's initial statement, which didn't question the motives behind the center. In other words, this is no longer just about the feelings of those still wounded by 9/11, as ADL initially claimed. With this response, ADL has strayed even further from its own stated mission. After all, the group says its "ultimate purpose" is to "put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens." And in his letter to Zakaria, Foxman says ADL will continue to stand up for Muslims who are the targets of "racism and bigotry.""

• David Ignatius - Obama offers Iran an opening on engagement - Washington Post

  ""It is very important to put before the Iranians a clear set of steps that we would consider sufficient to show that they are not pursuing nuclear weapons," Obama said, adding: "They should know what they can say 'yes' to." As in the past, he left open the possibility that the United States would accept a deal that allows Iran to maintain its civilian nuclear program, so long as Iran provides "confidence-building measures" to verify that it is not building a bomb. "

• Oil Spill Fashion Photoshoot From Vogue Italia - Refinery29

  "There's no denying that these images from the oil spill editorial in Vogue Italia's August 2010 issue are beautiful. The 24 pages of Kristen McMenamy, shot by Steven Meisel, are realistic interpretations of images of injured, oiled animals that have inundated the news media since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in April. As beautiful and provocative as they are, we can't help but feel uneasy. Creating beauty and glamour out of tragedy seems quite fucked up to us, not to mention wasteful and hypocritical, seeing as thousands of dollars of luxury clothing was flown in, and then subsequently ruined for the shoot. Glamorizing this recent ecological and social disaster for the sake of "fashion" reduces the tragic event to nothing more than attention-grabbing newsstand fodder. But that's just us. Do you think this is appropriate commentary, or just tasteless? "

I apologize for the lack of news updates recently. I've been traveling in California and Chicago and got back last night. Off to Dubai in three days...

• Israeli settlers evict Palestinian family from their home of 70 years - Guardian

  "Israeli settlers took over a Palestinian home in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem's Old City today, evicting about 45 members of an extended family which has occupied the building for more than 70 years. The settlers claimed to have documentation to prove they had purchased the building from the owners. The Palestinian tenants, who have been fighting attempts to evict them for many years, were challenging the takeover in court. A police spokesman said the Israelis had entered the home "based on documents claiming that they owned the property"."

• Human rights in Tunisia: No to opposition - The Economist

  "Mr Ben Ali, nearly 74, often boasts of running a stable, modestly prosperous, well-educated country, with the Arab world’s most liberal legislation for women’s rights. But democracy is another matter. After his election to a fifth term in October, with 90% of the vote, his fist got tighter than usual. Amnesty International says that dissidents are held in dire conditions; those still free are constantly harassed. According to the human-rights body, security agents infiltrate opposition groups to take control of them, stifling open politics. Moreover, according to a book published last year in France but banned in Tunisia, Mr Ben Ali’s family and influential wife, Leila Trabelsi, own a number of lucrative monopolies that hamper the free market."

• A barely tolerated minority - Haaretz

  "And it is not just Hamas that is outlawed in Jerusalem: All Palestinian political activity more radical than a Cub Scout meeting is illegal in East Jerusalem. Palestinians in East Jerusalem are not being paranoid if they fear that the expulsion of Abu Tir portends a new trend, where any "proscribed" political activity may result in permanent exile. Israeli non-recognition of the Palestinians of East Jerusalem as an indigenous community with rights is evident in every policy that governs that part of the city. Israel has expropriated one-third of the privately owned Palestinian land there to build 50,000 residential units for Israelis; none for Palestinians. The expropriations are always made for "public purposes," but the "public" involved is, invariably, Israelis only."

• Immigration Debate: Border Cities See Less Violent Crime - Time

  "According to the FBI, the four large U.S. cities (with populations of at least 500,000) with the lowest violent crime rates — San Diego, Phoenix and the Texas cities of El Paso and Austin — are all in border states. "The border is safer now than it's ever been," U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lloyd Easterling told the Associated Press last month. Even Larry Dever, the sheriff of Arizona's Cochise County, where the murder last March of a local rancher, believed to have been committed by an illegal immigrant, sparked calls for the law, conceded to the Arizona Republic recently that "we're not seeing the [violent crime] that's going on on the other side." "

• The new division of labor: Adding profits, subtracting workers - Wash Post

  "The only surprise is that anyone is surprised by the lack of private-sector hiring. It is only in the world of Chamber of Commerce propaganda that businesses exist to create jobs. In the real world, businesses exist to create profits for shareholders, not jobs for workers. That's why they call it capitalism, not job-ism. There's no reason to beat up on business owners and executives simply because they're doing what the system encourages them to do. By the same token, however, it is more than a bit hypocritical for business leaders to pin the blame on the Obama administration for their own failure to create private-sector jobs, as they have been doing lately. "

• New START: Too modest to merit partisan bickering- Wash Post

  "But on this issue, Republicans can and should take the high ground and set a better standard. The treaty has its problems -- in verification, where the Russians seem never to be entirely trustworthy, as well as in counting mechanisms -- and so did the treaties negotiated by the two Bush administrations. But New START is not so badly flawed as to warrant rejection. "

• Boot - Impact of past defense cuts should warn of risks - Wash Post

  ** I disagree with his connections between cutting the military and the wars we could have allegedly prevented, but the premise is interesting. I'm all for cutting military spending personally** "If there were ever evidence that it's impossible to learn from history -- or at least that it's difficult for politicians to do so -- this is it. Before they rush to cut defense spending, lawmakers should consider the consequences of previous attempts to cash in on a "peace dividend." "

• 'UN court to implicate Hezbollah' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

  "The Hezbollah leader has said that members of his group are expected to be charged by a UN court probing the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon."

• Lebanon plans 'spying' complaint - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

  "Lebanon plans to file a complaint about Israeli "espionage" at the United Nations, according to the country's information minister. More than 50 people have been arrested since an investigation was launched into allegations of spying by Israeli agents inside Lebanon in April 2009."

• Argentina prison's dummy sentinel allows two inmates to escape | World news | The Guardian

  "The only flaw in the innovation was that Wilson did not demur when two convicted armed robbers escaped, an oversight owing more to Mr Bean than Prison Break. Walter Pozo, 33, and Cesar Andres, 26, merged into a crowd of departing visitors last Saturday and vanished to freedom in Neuquén, a small city in Argentina's vast Patagonian wilderness."

• RNC fails to report $7M in debt to FEC - Washington Times

  "The Republican National Committee failed to report more than $7 million in debt to the Federal Election Commission in recent months - a move that made its bottom line appear healthier than it is heading into the midterm elections and that also raises the prospect of a hefty fine."

• Israeli Forces Kill Unarmed Palestinian - NYTimes.com

  "Israeli forces shot to death an unarmed Palestinian man early on Thursday at the edge of a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank, Israeli military and Palestinian officials said. The Palestinian Authority government condemned the killing, calling it a "breach of the rule of law." "

• He impersonated a human - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

  "Now the respected judges have to be asked: If the man was really Dudu posing as Sabbar, a Jew pretending to be an Arab so he could sleep with an Arab woman, would he then be convicted of rape? And do the eminent judges understand the social and racist meaning of their florid verdict? Don't they realize that their verdict has the uncomfortable smell of racial purity, of "don't touch our daughters"? That it expresses the yearning of the extensive segments of society that would like to ban sexual relations between Arabs and Jews? It was no coincidence that this verdict attracted the attention of foreign correspondents in Israel, temporary visitors who see every blemish. Yes, in German or Afrikaans this disgraceful verdict would have sounded much worse. "

• 'Arab man attacked for talking to Jewish girl' - Israel News, Ynetnews

  "A 23-year-old Arab man sustained serious injuries after being attacked in Tiberias, allegedly for talking to a young Jewish woman. Police are still searching for the suspected assailant, a 19-year-old who fled the scene. "

• Why the Clash of Civilizations Won't Go Away | Marc Lynch

  "The resilence of the clash of civilizations frame is enabled by the inability of advocates of a new approach, including the Obama administration and many progressive foreign policy thinkers, to develop and defend a powerful alternative frame. The best argument, and certainly one which I've made often, is that the U.S. has a vital national security interest in preventing a spiral towards a "clash of civilizations" which would strengthen al-Qaeda's appeal and narrative. That's right --- but it's also a negative message, about what should not happen, rather than a positive one about Islam or about America's relationship with Muslims around the world."

• Drunk Russians drown escaping heatwave - World news - Europe - Russia - msnbc.com

  "More than 1,200 people drowned across Russia in June this year, he said, including 233 between July 5 and July 12. "The majority of those drowned were drunk," he said. "The children died because adults simply did not look after them." Last week six children drowned in the Sea of Azov in southern Russia because the summer camp employees who were minding them were drunk."

• Police suspect alleged Jewish terrorist killed four Palestinians - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

  ** Yet we call him an "extremist" not a terrorist** "A right-wing Israeli extremist arrested this week over a string of stabbing attacks is suspected of murdering four Palestinians and attempting to murder another seven, according to details of the investigation released on Thursday. "

• Israel still can’t prove their version of the flotilla attack

  **Israeli narrative of flotilla attack still be exposed as lies, lies and more lies** "The IDF claims that their soldiers were stabbed, axed, and shot at. But despite their multi-million dollar multimedia production and all of the footage that they stole from the journalists that they arrested, they produce no evidence for any of this. They claim to have been shot at, but can produce no photos or videos of injured soldiers, no firearms (except for the captured soldier’s gun that was never fired), no spent shells, no gunpowder on activists' hands, nothing."

• Drunk Babies!: Pics, Videos, Links, News

  "This campaign, developed by the Dentsu advertising agency features pictures of appearingly “drunk babies” to promote the L'universe de Chocolat company's Chocolate With Whisky line of alcoholic-confections. I just hope they can manage to crawl over to their next piece. "

• U.S. To Jordan: Change Your Nuclear Program or We'll Cut Aid - International Middle East Media Center

  "The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordon could lose its pecuniary aid from the United States should it continue to enhance its nuclear program without cooperation with Israel, Israeli news source Ynet reported. Amman ignored Israeli requests to be involved in the extraction and enrichment of uranium which prompted the threat from Washington. The U.S. and Jordan discussed Jordan's nuclear plan for six months, but the Jordanians were unable to obtain US approval."

• Lawmakers probe hospital that may have infected veterans with HIV - CNN.com

  "The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs will hold a hearing Tuesday afternoon into the safety lapses at the John Cochran VA Medical Center in Missouri. The hospital is under fire because it may have exposed more than 1,800 veterans to life-threatening diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. The center in St. Louis, Missouri, recently mailed letters to 1,812 veterans telling them they could contract hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after visiting the medical center for dental work, said Rep. Russ Carnahan."

• Why is the U.S. Treasury Department subsidizing zealots who oppose our foreign-policy objectives? - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

  **For once I actually kind of agree with Hitchens** "So here we have found a means of a) alienating even the most flexible and patient Palestinians; while b) frustrating the efforts of the more principled and compromising Israelis; while c) empowering and financing some of the creepiest forces in American and Israeli society; and d) heaping ordure on our own secular founding documents. When will the Justice Department and the Congress and the Supreme Court become aware of this huge and rank offense, which is designed to bring us ever nearer to holy war?"

• Unrest adds to Egypt’s labour travails - FT

  "Three hundred nurses in a state-owned hospital in the Delta town of Shebin El Kom have become the latest group to stage industrial action. They have just ended a 21-day strike after receiving promises that their salaries would be doubled. “We will see if they keep their word,” says Sara Ibrahim, one of the organisers of the action. “All we have now are promises in the air, but some of us have been transferred to other jobs, and some sacked, so we decided to suspend the protest until they give us our rights.” She says that after 20 years as a nurse her monthly pay was only E£400 ($70), of which she was spending a third on transport to and from work."

• Report: Secret document affirms U.S.-Israel nuclear partnership - Haaretz

  "Israel's Army Radio reported on Wednesday that the United States has sent Israel a secret document committing to nuclear cooperation between the two countries. According to Army Radio, the U.S. has reportedly pledged to sell Israel materials used to produce electricity, as well as nuclear technology and other supplies, despite the fact that Israel is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Other countries have refused to cooperate with Israel on nuclear matters because it has not signed the NPT, and there has been increasing international pressure for Israel to be more transparent about its nuclear arsenal. "

• Gaza Flotilla Ships to Be Held - NYT

  **I'm guessing they are "holding onto" all of the aid as well so they can complete their "investigation." "Israel will hold on to the six ships from the international flotilla that sought to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, at least until it completes its investigation into a deadly raid on one vessel, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Israel towed the boats to port days after naval commandos stormed the ships, killing nine Turkish activists. The investigation, led by a retired Supreme Court justice, Yaakov Turkel, is expected to take months. “Nothing will be done with these ships until after the Turkel inquiry because they might want to inspect them,” said Shlomo Dror, a ministry spokesman. "

• Police: Priest used church money on male escorts, lavish lifestyle - CNN

  "To his congregants, he lived the humble existence of a pastor. But a high-flying Connecticut priest was charged this week with first-degree larceny in the theft of almost $1.3 million from his church's coffers to fund a lavish double life that included swanky hotels and male escorts, said Capt. Chris Corbett of the Waterbury Police Department in Connecticut."

• Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah may follow Arizona's lead on immigration law - Washington Post

  "Legislators in at least 17 other states introduced bills this year similar to the Arizona law, which allows officers to question anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. But most of those measures are not considered likely to be adopted or signed by governors. "

• Is Humanitarian Design the New Imperialism? - Fast Company

  "But should we take a moment now that the movement is gathering speed to ask whether or not American and European designers are collaborating with the right partners, learning from the best local people, and being as sensitive as they might to the colonial legacies of the countries they want to do good in. Do designers need to better see themselves through the eyes of the local professional and business classes who believe their countries are rising as the U.S. and Europe fall and wonder who, in the end, has the right answers? Might Indian, Brazilian and African designers have important design lessons to teach Western designers? And finally, one last question: why are we only doing humanitarian design in Asia and Africa and not Native American reservations or rural areas, where standards of education, water and health match the very worst overseas? "

• Israel threatens to expel Palestinian politicians from Jerusalem - Guardian

  "The threatened deportations are part of a wider pattern of revoking the Jerusalem residency permits of Palestinians from the city. In most cases, Israel claims that the people it strips of the right to live in Jerusalem have voluntarily relocated to the West Bank or abroad. This is often contested by the individuals concerned and human rights groups representing them. In 2008, more than 4,500 Palestinians were excluded from Jerusalem. However the case of the four Hamas politicians is the first time Israel has cited political grounds for expelling people from the city. "For the first time Israel is using a claim of disloyalty to revoke residency," said Hasan Jabarin, director of the Israeli human rights group Adalah. "The consequences for Palestinians in East Jerusalem are dangerous. This case could open a new window to revoking residency on purely political grounds.""

• The Neocons’ Fadlallah Problem - Wonk Room

  "Responding to the uproar, Nasr wrote “It was an error of judgment for me to write such a simplistic comment and I’m sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah’s life’s work. That’s not the case at all”: Here’s what I should have conveyed more fully: I used the words “respect” and “sad” because to me as a Middle Eastern woman, Fadlallah took a contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on woman’s rights. He called for the abolition of the tribal system of “honor killing.” He called the practice primitive and non-productive. He warned Muslim men that abuse of women was against Islam. [...] Sayyed Fadlallah. Revered across borders yet designated a terrorist. Not the kind of life to be commenting about in a brief tweet. It’s something I deeply regret."

• It's Not the Economy, Stupid | Foreign Policy

  "Although the situation in Gaza is dire, we should not view this dispute solely or even primarily through the prism of economics. The flawed policies of the United States, Israel, and the international community toward Gaza -- and indeed toward the entire Israeli-Palestinian issue -- go far beyond the failure to allow cement and other construction materials into the strip. Without reconciliation between Palestinian factions and the political reunification of the West Bank and Gaza, not only a better future for Gaza but the two-state solution itself will remain out of reach. COMMENTS (24) SHARE: Twitter Reddit Buzz Bookmark and Share More... Gaza's economic plight is a symptom of a larger failure of U.S. policy. The U.S. approach toward the Israeli-Palestinian issue -- which sets the tone for policies by Europe and other interested parties -- is based in part on two assumptions that are almost certainly false. "

• Hebron Means Business: Rebranding War-Torn Palestine | Co.

  "Some background: Hebron is divided into H1, a Palestinian territory, with about 140,000 inhabitants; and H2, the old city where hundreds of military-guarded Jewish settlers live -- illegally, according to international law -- among roughly 30,000 Palestinians. The settlements pose a constant threat to residents' well-being, with 86 percent of Palestinians in the old city living in relative poverty, as of 2008, the International Committee on the American Red Cross reports. Tales of travel restrictions, scare tactics, and even children getting pelted with stones as they walk to school are not uncommon."

• BP Steps Up 'Charm Offensive' - WSJ.com

  "Mr. Hayward met with Abu Dhabi's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a visit to the oil-rich sheikdom Wednesday. During the visit he said that he would be open to seeing the city state's sovereign wealth fund buy a stake of up to 10% in BP, a person with knowledge of the meeting told Zawya Dow Jones. "

• Congress reviewing Cuban sanctions, may lift travel ban

  "Mojitos at Varadero Beach . . . fishing in the waters Hemingway immortalized . . . dinner and a show at the Tropicana: A long list of currently forbidden pleasures will become legal for Americans under pending legislation that would lift central provisions of the United States' half-century embargo of Cuba. The bill is being pushed by business and agriculture groups that have long argued that the Cold War-era sanctions against Cuba should be lifted, but it is opposed by an influential anti-communist lobby, which is against Cuba's ruling Castro family. "

• Holywood stars snub film festival

  "Hollywood actors Meg Ryan and Dustin Hoffman backed out of attending this year’s annual Jerusalem Film Festival, which is set to kick off this coming Thursday, following the international outcry over Israel’s attack on a Turkish-led flotilla that attempted to break the Gaza blockade on May 31, The Jerusalem Post learned Monday."

• Poland to extradite alleged Mossad agent tied to Dubai killing - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

  "A Polish court ruled on Wednesday that an alleged Mossad agent tied to the killing of a Hamas leaderin Dubai should be extradited to Germany. Uri Brodsky, an Israeli citizen, is suspected of having helped to forge a German passport used in the January assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. He was detained in Poland in early June. "

• BBC News - Tallest tent in the world opens in Kazakhstan

  "The world's tallest tent has opened to the public in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. Designed by the British architects Foster & Partners, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre in the capital Astana is 150m (490ft) high. It opens on the day the city celebrates 13 years as the capital and President Nursultan Nazarbayev his 70th birthday."

• Egypt worst Arab state on rule-of-law index | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

  "Egypt has ranked last of all the Arab states on the International Justice Project (IJP)'s latest rule-of-law index. Qatar ranked first on the index, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the IJC's newly-released 2010 report, Egypt received only 0.31 points in terms of government accountability, compared to 0.49 points for Qatar and 0.57 points for the UAE. On the "absence of corruption" scale, meanwhile, Egypt scored only 0.48 points, compared to 0.81 points for Qatar and 0.80 points for the UAE."

• Post office plans to announce new rate increase - Yahoo! News

  "Battered by massive losses, the Postal Service wants to raise rates to bring in more money. Postal officials scheduled a briefing Tuesday to discuss the amount of the increase, which will go to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission for review."

• Tax-Exempt Funds Aiding West Bank Settlements in West Bank
  

• "But during their visit in February the volunteers found themselves in the middle of the fight for land that defines daily life here. When the evangelicals headed into the vineyards, they were pelted with rocks by Palestinians who say the settlers have planted creeping grape vines on their land to claim it as their own. Two volunteers were hurt. In the ensuing scuffle, a settler guard shot a 17-year-old Palestinian shepherd in the leg.

  “These people are filled with ideas that this is the Promised Land and their duty is to help the Jews,” said Izdat Said Qadoos of the neighboring Palestinian village. “It is not the Promised Land. It is our land.""

• IDF objector sprays 'Free Gaza' graffiti on Warsaw Ghetto wall - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

  "A group of Israeli left-wing activists and pro-Palestinian demonstrators last week sprayed graffiti on remnants of the Warsaw Ghetto, calling for all ghettos to be liberated, including Gaza. "

So according to the NYT, Haagen-Dazs donates to "charities" that help fund settlements and illegal outposts (the same thing in my mind) in the West Bank. Time to switch to Ben and Jerry's...

The donors to settlement charities represent a broad mix of Americans — from wealthy people like the hospital magnate Dr. Irving I. Moskowitz and the family behind Haagen-Dazs ice cream to bidders at kosher pizza auctions in Brooklyn and evangelicals at a recent Bible meeting in a Long Island basement. But they are unified in their belief that returning the West Bank — site of the ancient Jewish kingdoms — to full Jewish control is critical to Israeli security and fulfillment of biblical prophecies.

Israel Derangement Syndrome

To read Charles Krauthammer today is to enter a twilight zone of an alternate reality. A country permanently occupying and colonizing a neighboring region, and treating its original inhabitants as dangerous interlopers, is the victim. An elite commando unit attacking a ship carrying toys and wheelchairs in the hours before dawn are those we should feel pity for. A country with 150 nuclear warheads and the strongest military in its region, the victor in every conventional war it has always fought, is somehow also always fighting for its very existence. A country backed by the sole superpower, supplied with aid by huge majorities in the US Congress, is facing extinction. Self-defense requires not civilly disabling and inspecting the cargo of an unarmed ship but raiding it at dawn and killing nine and injuring dozens. Basic human revulsion at a military that can kill over a thousand people - including scores of women and children in a trapped, impoverished enclave - can only be a function of anti-Semitism. A territory that is being systematically populated with Israelis in illegal settlements in contravention of the Geneva Conventions is merely a "buffer zone". You need to colonize buffer zones?

Invasion and occupation of neighboring countries is "forward defense". And asking that a two-state solution be moved forward by freezing illegal settlement construction and allowing a blockade that, while interdicting arms, doesn't seek to kill civilians and restrict the import of basic necessities is to deprive a country with 150 nuclear warheads of any legitimate form of self-defense.

This is a form of derangement, or of such a passionate commitment to a foreign country that any and all normal moral rules or even basic fairness are jettisoned. And you will notice one thing as well: no regret whatsoever for the loss of human life, just as the hideous murder of so many civilians in the Gaza war had to be the responsibility of the victims, not the attackers. There is no sense of the human here; just the tribe.

Something has been wrong here for a very long time, and now it is inescapable. Until the discourse is rescued from the victims of Israel Derangement Syndrome, Israel and America will slowly be drawn into wars they cannot ultimately win, lose every other ally they ever had, and embolden and fortify the very Islamist forces we are seeking to defuse and defeat.

Israeli Jewish settlers shoot and kill a Palestinian, 16, in the back near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

When are the United States and Israel going to wake up and realize that these settlers are the equivalent of the KKK in the United States? They are violent, aggressive racist criminals who disregard all authorities of justice as they spread their "God-ordained" tentacles throughout the West Bank killing children, burning mosques, and stealing houses. It is absolutely unacceptable that a US citizen can donate money to organizations that finance these illegal settlements and receive a tax break, yet not give money to certain Palestinian organizations that actually provide health care and legal aid to the real citizens of the West Bank. Outside the rabid Zionist frenzy of Jerusalem, a majority of Israelis view these settlers with disdain. They are Jews and Jews for Jesus from New York City and Russia who are trying to be "more Israeli than the Israelis" so to speak, and thus think they are proving themselves by shooting children in the back in the name of God while whining that the world is against them and that THEY are the victims.

Anyways, here's the story that started this angry rant:

Palestinians: Settlers killed stone-throwing teen near Ramallah
There was no confirmation from Israel of the shooting, nor was it clear if attack linked to 'price-tag' policy against Palestinians.

Settlers opened fire and killed a Palestinian teenager who threw rocks at them near the West Bank city of Ramallah late Thursday, according to Palestinian sources.

The body of Iser A-aban, 16, was found with gunshot wounds to the back outside the village of Mazra'a al Sharqiya, according to the sources.

There was no confirmation from Israel regarding the report.

Violent rightists have adopted a "price tag" policy against Palestinians since Israel declared a temporary freeze in West Bank construction last December. Over the course of the last five months, groups of extremists have vandalized mosques destroy Palestinian property as a response to the IDF's having dismantled illegal outposts.

It was not yet clear whether this incident was related to the "price tag" operation.