Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

When it comes to the Middle East, and Israel/Palestine in particular, promoting nuanced discussion and policies can only cost votes, while pandering to peoples' willful ignorance and most chauvinistic interests will at least bring out the party faithful.

From Tony Judt: An Intellectual Hero

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."

• Fareed Zakaria - The fantasy of an Iranian revolution

  "I have been deeply supportive of Iran's Green Movement. I wrote about it, highlighted it on television and showcased its advocates. But I do not think it was likely to overthrow the Iranian regime. To believe that, one has to believe the government in Tehran is deeply unpopular with a majority of Iranians, holds onto power through military force alone and is thus vulnerable to a movement that could mobilize the vast majority in Iran who despise it. None of this is entirely true. "

  "Ironically, those hoping to liberate Iranians are the same people urging punitive sanctions and even military force against Iran. Do they think that when the bombs hit, those who wear green will be spared?"

• Jerusalem revives plan to raze Palestinian homes

  How sweet, Israel "consulted" with the Palestinian residents whose houses they are going to destroy to find how they can "better their lives." Perhaps, they should not destroy their homes, that would help. "A Jerusalem planning body on Monday approved a plan to raze 22 Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem to make room for an Israeli tourist center, a decision that could raise tensions in the divided city and deepen the conflict with the Obama adminstration. "Now, after fine-tuning the plan and seeking more cooperation with the residents as far as their needs and improving the quality of their lives, the municipality is ready to submit the plans for the first stage of approval," said Barkat's spokesman, Stephan Miller, before the city's planning commission agreed to the plan. "

• Rahm Emanuel expected to quit White House - Telegraph

  "Washington insiders say he will quit within six to eight months in frustration at their unwillingness to "bang heads together" to get policy pushed through. Mr Emanuel, 50, enjoys a good working relationship with Mr Obama but they are understood to have reached an understanding that differences over style mean he will serve only half the full four-year term. "

• Israel warns Lebanon aid ships - Al Jazeera English

  "A group of Lebanese women activists joined by Europeans and journalists are planning to sail for Gaza in the latest bid to break Israel's blockade of the coastal enclave." Just one more attempt to break the inhumane and injust blockade of Gaza. Momentum is building and Israel is on the wrong side of justice and history

• Poll: Most Palestinians want peace with Israel - Haaretz
  

  "Fafo, a Norwegian based international multidisciplinary research foundation, found that 73 percent of Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza were in favor of peace negotiations with Israel, but stressed that a settlement freeze should be a precondition to talks. The poll also revealed a rise in Palestinian support for halting rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel, rising from 53 percent in favor of a halt in 2009 to 61 percent in 2010. "

• Non-violence is not a principle, it is a tactic

  "“The point is that even if they were – while terribly difficult – the passengers could have resisted nonviolently by refusing to comply with the soldiers’ demands without making any attempt to injure them,” is ridiculous. When someone is shooting at you and your friends, you must disarm them, and probably use violence to do so. If you can’t disarm them, you must use violence to stop them from shooting, one way or another. The demand a bullet entering your skull makes on you is for you to die, and if there is a way to “refuse to comply” with that demand, Taylor and Nagler should fess up quick."

• In the Face of Overwhelming Odds - P U L S E

  "Which recent siege-busting ship was more visible, the Mavi Marmara or the Rachel Corrie? The unarmed activists on the Mavi Marmara quite correctly and lawfully resisted the piratical hijacking by Israeli forces in international waters. (Does anyone remember the heroes of United Airlines Flight 93?) On the Mavi Marmara, nine activists were murdered. Their sacrifice was not in vain – in the following days Israeli criminality was exposed as never before, and even the White House and Downing Street were enabled to make anti-siege noises. The passengers on the Rachel Corrie, on the other hand, announced in advance that they would not resist. As a result, only keen observers noticed the ship at all. (Readers of Ha’aretz may remember a photograph of a middle-aged European lady smiling as a gallant stormtrooper helped her disembark in Ashdod.) Unwittingly, the ‘non-violent’ activists (whose commitment I salute) handed Israel ammunition for its propaganda – ‘when civilised, peaceful activists arrive we deal with them peacefully. When mad Islamist Turks attack us with sticks, we have no choice but to shoot them many times at close range in the back of the head.’"

• Does Israel suffer from 'Iranophobia'? - CSMonitor.com

  "Menashri says the analogy is a mistake. “Because if Ahmadinejad is Hitler, if Nasser was Hitler, Saddam was Hitler, Arafat was Hitler – what can I tell my children about the unique character of the Holocaust? If I want to keep the memory, I am downgrading the historical significance of the Holocaust by repeating that every crazy thing is Hitler.”"

Israel and the Netanyahu government once again proving it has no desire to make peace with the Palestinians.

Palestine: Israeli Military Order Threatens Mass Deportation
Posted by Ali Yenidunya in Middle East & Iran

A new military order aiming at “preventing infiltration” through deportation and/or punishment of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank will come into force this week. Those whose ID cards bear home addresses in the Gaza Strip — not only people born in Gaza but any of their children born in the West Bank — those born in the West Bank or abroad who have lost their residency status, and foreign-born spouses of Palestinians are “infiltrators”. They are subject to deportation, a fine of NIS 7500, and/or a jail sentence of up to seven years.

Middle East Inside Line: US Has No Plan?; Netanyahu Nuclear Snub Played Down; King Abdullah Meets Obama

Despite this violation of the Oslo Accords, Palestinians with Gaza addresses have been defined since 2000 as illegal sojourners, as if they were citizens of a foreign state. Many of them, including those born in the West Bank, have been “deported” to Gaza.

Since 2007, Palestinians with Gaza addresses have had the right to request a permit to stay in the West Bank. Indeed, since 2009, residents of East Jerusalem have no need for permission to enter Area A, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority. This new order not only supersedes these regulations but, broadening the definition of “infiltration”, and brings more Palestinians into the category of potential criminals. The term infiltrator will also be applied to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, citizens of countries with whom Israel has friendly ties (such as the US), and Israeli citizens, whether Arab or Jewish.

Who is to judge whether someone is an “infiltrator”? Israel Defense Forces commanders in the field. So who can determine who can reside in Jericho, Ramallah, Nablus, or Hebron? Israeli commanders or the Palestinian Authority?

With this measure, Israel is provoking the “other”, violating its agreements and doing its best to delegitimize the Palestinian leadership, in the eyes of both Palestinians and Israelis. It is a contradiction of Israel’s official expectation that the West Bank authorities will come to the table as a “partner state”; curtailed and publicly belittled, this is a half-partner lacking the basic functions of a Government.

And so West Jerusalem, at the level of the practical rather than Washington’s invocation of the rhetorical, blocks the peace process itself.

• On the Verge of Historic Change?

  Washington repeats it ironclad commitment to Israel’s basic security in its 1967 borders, suggesting that the US is finally clarifying that its support for Israel does not include unconditional support for Israel’s colonization policies, notes Rami G. Khouri.

• Study puts Colorado high-speed passenger rail price tag at $22 billion « Colorado Independent

  High-speed passenger rail service on dedicated tracks along the Interstate 25 and Interstate 70 corridors will cost $22 billion and likely require up to 50-percent funding by Colorado taxpayers, a Rocky Mountain Rail Authority (RMRA) spokesman said this week.

• Editorial - Mr. Obama and Israel - NYTimes.com

  After taking office last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel privately told many Americans and Europeans that he was committed to and capable of peacemaking, despite the hard-line positions that he had used to get elected for a second time. Trust me, he told them. We were skeptical when we first heard that, and we’re even more skeptical now.

• Jordan faces tough nuclear test - The National Newspaper

Jordan is looking to take advantage of an abundant resource - uranium.

• With No Jobs, Plenty of Time for Tea Party - NYTimes.com

  Tea Party members are all to willing to take the government "handouts" against which they are so insanely protesting.

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

1. A surprisingly well-thought out post in The New York Times critical of the so-called"pro-Israeli" narrative in the United States, which is actually hurting both US and Israeli interests in the long run.

So, by my lights, being “pro-Israel” in the sense embraced by Bauer, Boot and Foxman — backing Israel’s current policies, including its settlement policies — is actually anti-Israel. It’s also anti-America (in the sense of ‘bad for American security’), because Biden and Petraeus are right: America’s perceived support of — or at least acquiescence in — Israel’s more inflammatory policies endangers American troops abroad. In the long run, it will also endanger American civilians at home, funneling more terrorism in their direction.

2. In this link is a detailed map of Israel's continued theft of land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank from the increasingly nonviable Palestinian state.

3. A great post over at Foreign Policy's new Middle East Channel which is challenging the media's recent use of the expression that "everyone knows" settlement a, b, x will be part of Israel in the future, therefore there is no need to stop their construction. Friedman tears this argument apart, showing that it is really just discursive manipulation by the Israeli government.

Throughout the past week the world has heard Israeli government officials and their allies in the US --particularly among the pro-settler crowd -- defending construction in East Jerusalem settlements on the grounds that "everybody knows" these areas will always be part of Israel.

But today the "everybody knows" meme has been cynically appropriated by Netanyahu and his supporters. "Everybody knows these areas in East Jerusalem will always be Israel," they say, "so when the Palestinians (and the Americans) make a fuss about new construction plans, it is just for political purposes, not because there is any real issue."

Those peddling this rubbish are guilty of transparent manipulation. Those buying it are guilty of having short memories and an excess of credulity.

Israel is increasingly imprisoning Palestinian children as young as 12 years old for throwing stones and other acts of resistance. Currently 343 children between 12 and 16 are in prison. Children as young as 16 can be tried as adults, despite the facts that Israelis can only be tried as adults when they are 18 years old.

The Guardian article can be found here.

He had been made to sign a statement in Hebrew, a language he doesn't speak or read. He was blindfolded and taken to Ofer military prison, where he arrived at 3.30am. "There were no other children," he said. "I was afraid." Three days after his arrest he appeared at a military court. But his father, who works as a tiler, could not afford the 2,000 shekels (£350) bail. "My father told them he couldn't pay this much money," said Al-Hasan. His father, who sat next to him through the interview, burst into tears.

Last Sunday the boy was freed under a bail arrangement in which his father faces arrest if his son does not appear at the next summons. "Even if he were throwing stones, he is only 13," said Fadel. "They treated him like a terrorist. They claim they are democratic and human, but they are not."

Gideon Levy gets it all right once again.

Thank you, Eli Yishai for exposing the peace process masquerade
By Gideon Levy

Here's someone new to blame for everything: Eli Yishai. After all, Benjamin Netanyahu wanted it so much, Ehud Barak pressed so hard, Shimon Peres wielded so much influence - and along came the interior minister and ruined everything.

There we were, on the brink of another historic upheaval (almost). Proximity talks with the Palestinians were in the air, peace was knocking on the door, the occupation was nearing its end - and then a Shas rogue, who knows nothing about timing and diplomacy, came and shuffled all the proximity and peace cards.

The scoundrel appeared in the midst of the smile- and hug-fest with the vice president of the United States and disrupted the celebration. Joe Biden's white-toothed smiles froze abruptly, the great friendship was about to disintegrate, and even the dinner with the prime minister and his wife was almost canceled, along with the entire "peace process." And all because of Yishai.
Well, the interior minister does deserve our modest thanks. The move was perfect. The timing, which everyone is complaining about, was brilliant. It was exactly the time to call a spade a spade. As always, we need Yishai (and occasionally Avigdor Lieberman) to expose our true face, without the mask and lies, and play the enfant terrible who shouts that the emperor has no clothes.

For the emperor indeed has no clothes. Thank you, Yishai, for exposing it. Thank you for ripping the disguise off the revelers in the great ongoing peace-process masquerade in which nobody means anything or believes in anything.

What do we want from Yishai? To know when the Jerusalem planning committee convenes? To postpone its meeting by two weeks? What for? Hadn't the prime minister announced to Israel, the world and the United States, in a move seen at the time as a great Israeli victory, that the construction freeze in the settlements does not include Jerusalem? Then why blame that lowly official, the interior minister, who implemented that policy?

What's the big deal? Another 1,600 apartments for ultra-Orthodox Jews on occupied, stolen land? Jerusalem won't ever be divided, Benjamin Netanyahu promised, in another applause-winning move. In that case, why not build in it? The Americans have agreed to all this, so they have no reason to pretend to be insulted.

The interior minister should not apologize for the "distress" he caused, but be proud of it. He is the government's true face. Who knows, perhaps thanks to him America will finally understand that nothing will happen unless it exerts real pressure on Israel.

What would we do without Yishai? Biden would have left Israel propelled by the momentum of success. Netanyahu would have boasted of a renewed close friendship. A few weeks later, the indirect talks would have started. Europe would have applauded, and Barack Obama, the president of big promises, would even have taken a moment away from dealing with his country's health-care issues to meet with Netanyahu. George Mitchell, who has already scored quite a few diplomatic feats here, would shuttle between Ramallah and Jerusalem, and maybe Netanyahu would eventually have met with Mahmoud Abbas. Face to face. Then everything would have been sorted out.

Without preconditions, certainly without preconditions, Israel would have continued to build in the territories in the meantime - not 1,600 but 16,000 new apartments. The IDF would have continued arresting, imprisoning, humiliating and starving - all under the auspices of the peace talks, of course. Jerusalem forever. The right of return is out of the question, and so is Hamas. And onward to peace!

Months would go by, the talks would "progress," there would be lots of photo ops, and every now and then a mini-crisis would erupt - all because of the Palestinians, who want neither peace nor a state. At the very end, there might be another plan with another timetable that no one intends to keep.

Everything was so ready, so ripe, until that scoundrel, Yishai, came and kicked it all into oblivion. It's a bit embarrassing, but not so terrible. After all, time heals all wounds. The Americans will soon forgive, the Palestinians will have no choice, and once again everyone will stand ceremoniously on the platform and the process will be "jump-started" again - despite everything that the sole enemy of peace around here, Eli Yishai, has done to us.

Peace not wanted
By Gideon Levy
Haaretz

Israel does not want peace with Syria. Let's take off all the masks we've been hiding behind and tell the truth for a change. Let's admit that there's no formula that suits us, except the ludicrous "peace for peace." Let's admit it to ourselves, at least, that we do not want to leave the Golan Heights, no matter what. Forget about all the palaver, all the mediations, all the efforts.

Let's face it, we don't want peace, we want to run wild, to paraphrase an Israeli pop song from the '70s. Don't bother us with new Syrian proposals, like the one published in Haaretz this week that calls for a phased withdrawal and peace in stages; don't pester us with talk about peace as a way to break up the dangerous link between Syria and Iran; don't tell us peace with Syria is the key to forging peace with Lebanon and weakening Hezbollah. Turkey isn't an "honest" broker, the Syrians are part of the axis of evil, all is quiet on the Golan - you know how much we love the place, its mineral waters, its wines - so who needs all the commotion of demonstrations and evacuating settlements, just for peace?

It's not only the current extreme right-wing government that doesn't want this whole headache, and it wasn't only all of its predecessors - some of which were on the very brink of withdrawing from the Golan and only at the last moment, the very last moment, changed their minds. It's all the Israelis - the minority that is really against it and the majority that doesn't give a damn. They'd rather pretend not to hear the encouraging sounds coming out of Damascus in recent months and not even try to put them to the test.

Everyone would rather wave the menacing picture of Bashar Assad alongside Hassan Nasrallah and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his partners in the axis of evil, with the hummus and the bulgur. That on its own should have made Israel try 10 times harder to make peace. But in Israeli eyes, the picture of the banquet, as one Israeli paper termed the "modest meal," is worth more than a thousand words. After that, do you really expect us to give up the Golan? Don't make us laugh. We'll make peace with Micronesia, not Syria.

When the Syrians talk peace, it is all "empty words," "deception" and a wily way of getting closer to the United States. But when Assad poses with the president of Iran, that's the truth, that's Syria's real face. Even when he merely says, on the same occasion, that Syria must prepare for an Israeli attack, he is immediately accused of "threatening" Israel.

Do you want proof that we really don't want peace with Syria? Well, there has not yet been one Israeli prime minister who has said that we do. Because, after all, the order would have to be the opposite of the usual Israeli haggling. A prime minister who really wanted to achieve peace would have to say one terribly simple thing: We undertake in advance - yes, in advance - to hand back the entire Golan in exchange for a full peace. But no, not one prime minister has declared readiness to leave the Golan - right up to the last grain of sand, as we did in Sinai - in exchange for a peace like that which we have with Egypt.

Why on earth do we always have to hold onto this card so it can be played last? And what kind of a card is it, anyway? What kind of end does it ensure? After all, if the Syrian reply is negative, nobody will make us leave the Golan Heights. And what if the reply is positive? Why not start off with a promising, invigorating declaration, one that will give the Syrians hope and thereby at least put their intentions to the test.

But we are not the only ones who don't want peace. The United States has turned out to be a true friend that extricates us from every briar patch. It doesn't want peace enough either, praise the Lord. It's a fact: Washington is applying no pressure. Here's another marvelous pretext for doing nothing - America isn't pressing us and the redeemer will come to Zion, in the words of the prophet Isaiah. Yet we are the ones who have to stay in the dangerous and menacing Middle East, not the Americans; we should be more interested than anyone in preventing another war in the north, in creating a new relationship with Syria and then with Lebanon, and in weakening Iranian influence; in trying to integrate, at last. An Israeli interest, no? And what do we do to advance it? Half of nothing.

So what is there left to do? At least admit the truth: We do not want peace with Syria. That's all there is to it.

According to the Israeli paper Haaretz, US Special Envoy George Mitchell tried to resign from his position, citing his lack of progress and the favored bias toward Israel in some parts of the State Department.

In another clear move that Israel is very happy with the current situation, and has very little desire to seriously pursue peace talks with the Palestinians, Israel is planning to build 600 more homes in occupied East Jerusalem. All settlements within East Jerusalem are considered illegal under international law.

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on the future of political assassinations and Israel's recent hit on a Palestinian in Dubai.