Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Domestic oil use in Saudi Arabia at 10-year high | Energy, Oil and Gas | AMEinfo.com

  According to official Saudi figures, crude oil consumption in the kingdom rose 13.7% in October from the previous month, reaching the highest level since at least 2002, Bloomberg has reported. The country used an average of 2.02 million barrels a day of oil in October compared with 1.78 million barrels in September,

• Israel's Emerging "Jewish Hezbollah" by Mark Perry | The Middle East Channel

  "I don't want to exaggerate, but it's time to call this what it is," a veteran IDF officer noted in a recent telephone conversation on the Nablus incident. "It might be news in America, but it's no secret in Israel. This is a very real crisis. What we have here is the birth of a state within a state. The birth of a kind of Jewish Hezbollah." This former officer went on to speculate that "what is emerging in the West Bank" is "a three-state solution: Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and, standing between them, a radical settler state."

• Portugal to Pass Security Laws as Crime Rises Amid Austerity - Bloomberg

  Portugal’s government is set to propose laws to make streets safer amid an increase in crime during the country’s year-long recession, Justice Minister Paula Teixeira da Cruz said. The government will soon propose legislation to bolster cooperation between different police forces,

• Woman Burned Alive in Brooklyn Elevator - Police Arrest Man - NYTimes.com

  Mr. Isaac, 47, methodically set the woman aflame, burning her alive in the elevator of her building in Brooklyn on Saturday, only a few feet from her apartment door, the police said. He sprayed the flammable liquid in the woman’s face and over her cowering body, and then lighted a Molotov cocktail to ignite the fire.

• Israel frees hundreds in second phase of swap - The Washington Post

  Also Sunday, the Israeli government moved ahead with its plan to accelerate building in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem, announcing that it would invite bids to construct more than 1,000 homes there. The new housing will be in the settlements of Beitar Ilit and Givat Zeev, and in Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem built on West Bank land annexed to the city. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the stepped-up construction last month after the Palestinians were accepted as a member state in UNESCO.

• Saudi Prince Buys $300 Million Stake in Twitter - WSJ.com

  Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has made a $300 million investment in Twitter Inc., expanding his media empire into social-media sites and giving the billionaire a stake in an online forum that was widely used by activists in this year's Arab uprisings.

• UAE food prices are among lowest in world | Retail | AMEinfo.com

  Food prices in the UAE are now some of the lowest in the world, thanks in part to ongoing government controls introduced earlier this year, The National has reported. The UAE Government sought to protect consumers in May when it launched a campaign to freeze or reduce the prices of 400 basic commodities until the end of the year.

• Records show colonizers were not done with Goa - The Times of India

  After 50 years, one tends to think that the Portuguese colonial power kept itself busy elsewhere after Goa was liberated from its rule by the Indian army. But the colonizers nursed dreams of recapturing the tiny coastal Indian region for several years, even bombing Goa twice under the Indian union.

• A New Home for Hamas? - By Houriya Ahmed and Julia Pettengill | Foreign Policy

  The shifting allegiances in this tumultuous era of Arab politics have come to resemble a game of musical chairs. According to an unnamed Hamas official quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the hard-line Palestinian group is seeking to move its political headquarters from Damascus as early as this week. Its reliance on the tottering regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria has left it significantly weakened and in search of a new base for political operations, and Egypt and Qatar have both materialized as possible new bases, according to the official. In the case of the Qatari capital of Doha, that may not necessarily be a bad thing.

• Newt, Mitt, Bibi and Vladimir - NYTimes.com

  I sure hope that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, understands that the standing ovation he got in Congress this year was not for his politics. That ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby. The real test is what would happen if Bibi tried to speak at, let’s say, the University of Wisconsin. My guess is that many students would boycott him and many Jewish students would stay away, not because they are hostile but because they are confused.

• Why Tom Friedman is a true friend of Israel - By Stephen M. Walt | Stephen M. Walt

  Many of you probably saw Tom Friedman's startling column in yesterday's New York Times, where he attacked the Republican presidential candidates for pandering on the subject of Israel. He also informed his readers that all those standing ovations for Netanyahu in Congress were "bought and paid for by the Israel lobby," and he correctly noted that this blind and unconditional support for Israel was not really "pro-Israel" at all. Why? Because it was leading Israel away from a two-state solution and toward one of three disastrous options from Israel's perspective: 1) apartheid, 2) ethnic cleansing, or 3) a binational democratic state which would eventually be dominated by the more numerous Palestinians.

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.

• Egypt’s unlikely ‘founding fathers’ - The Washington Post

  They make an unlikely trio of “founding fathers” for the new Egypt: One is a wily, old-school politician, the second is a reticent scientist who won the Nobel Peace Prize and the third is a hard-nosed business tycoon. But they are emerging as the country’s senior political voices and, interestingly, they share similar views about Egypt’s transition to democracy.

• North Korea confirms US citizen is arrested - BBC

  North Korea has confirmed that it has arrested a US citizen and is preparing to charge him with "committing a crime" against the country. Jun Young-su was arrested in November last year, the official KCNA news agency said.

• U.S.-Financed Groups Had Supporting Role in Arab Uprisings - NYTimes.com

  A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington, according to interviews in recent weeks and American diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

• U.S. Says Iran Helps Crackdown in Syria - WSJ.com

  ** Remind me, where did Egypt get its tear gas, trainings, weapons and tanks from??? Oh yeah, USA. ***

  Iran is secretly helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad put down pro-democracy demonstrations, according to U.S. officials, who say Tehran is providing gear to suppress crowds and assistance blocking and monitoring protesters' use of the Internet, cellphones and text-messaging.

• Frustrated Justin Bieber 'pulled into' Israel politics - BBC

  But the visit encountered more controversy when a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - nicknamed "Bibi" - and the young star apparently fell through after Bieber refused a request from the PM to invite Israeli children affected by Palestinian rocket fire in Israel's south.

• Mark Kramer on shared value: Not just lipstick on a pig | The Economist

  The nonprofit consultant and co-author of a controversial new article says working toward the greater good can benefit the bottom line

• Middle East & North Africa - Israeli minister faces criminal charges - FT

  Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, faces criminal charges for fraud, money-laundering and witness tampering, in the latest in a series of scandals to hit the country’s political elite. Israel’s justice ministry said Mr Lieberman was informed by the attorney-general that he was “considering” an indictment, one of the last formal steps before charges are filed. Mr Lieberman has the right to defend himself in a hearing, a move that would delay any indictment for several months at least.

• U.N. report: Palestinian Authority ready for statehood - The Washington Post

  “In six areas where the U.N. is most engaged, governmental functions are now sufficient for a functioning government of a state,” said the report from the Office of the U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. It defined those areas as: governance, rule of law and human rights; livelihoods and productive sectors; education and culture; health; social protection; and infrastructure and water.

• Inhofe Defends Ivory Coast Strongman With 'Happy Face' (VIDEO) | TPMMuckraker

  As Justin Elliott has been reporting, Gbagbo has long running ties with the Christian right in the United States, including with Inhofe. Gbagbo and his wife Simone are evangelical Christians and have attended the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event that is run by the secretive Christian group called the Family. Gbagbo has also gotten support from Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network -- with one reporter on the network even comparing the situation in the Ivory Coast to the Bush-Gore showdown. Ouattara, for the record, is a Muslim.

• 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.” "

• Netanyahu to offer withdrawal from 90% of West Bank - Ynetnews

  **Absolutely no offer of East Jerusalem, absurd. This probably is not true, but the fact that Netanyahu denies offering 90% of the West Bank while excluding East Jerusalem, demonstrates how firmly against any peaceful solution Netanyahu is.** "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prepared a "tempting" plan to be presented to the Palestinians in the direct negotiations, as part of which Israel will offer to withdraw from up to 90% of the West Bank, excluding east Jerusalem, the London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Friday. The Prime Minister's Office denied the report, calling it "unfounded." "

• Cairo mosques begin unified call to prayer - Yahoo!

  "Is it even remotely feasible to get Cairo's 4,000 mosques to all sing the same tune? That's just what Egypt's government is aiming to do, beginning an ambitious project Thursday to unify the timing and sound of the Islamic call to prayer across the sprawling city of 18 million people, neighborhood by neighborhood. The project, which has been six years in the making, was meant to start in Cairo's northern suburbs on Wednesday, the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, but system glitches and a communication breakdown delayed it by a day."

• Glenn Beck Is Indifferent to Gay Marriage - The Atlantic Wire

  "Glenn Beck is no stranger to quoting the founding fathers in an attempt to salvage a country that's "burning down." But, in an interview with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, he invoked the words of Thomas Jefferson ("If it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket, what difference is it to me?") in support of an unlikely cause: gay marriage. Asked why he has remained notably silent on the recently overturned Proposition 8, he answered, "because honestly, I think we have bigger fish to fry." As O'Reilly pressed him to return to the gay marriage debate, Beck simply laughed off the idea and mocked the notion that gay-marriage was a "threat.""

• Netanyahu rejects peace talks based on 1967 borders - Haaretz

  "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday rejected a Palestinian demand that direct negotiations be based on a statement by the Quartet confirming its position that the future Palestinian state will be based on the 1967 borders. Meeting in Jerusalem with U.S. envoy George Mitchell, Netanyahu repeated his demand for the renewal of direct talks without preconditions. Mitchell briefed Netanyahu on his meeting on Tuesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and gave the prime minister the Palestinian proposal. "

• Ground Zero Mosque Goes Green - The Daily Beast

  "In the midst of the drama around the mosque that’s being erected two blocks from Ground Zero, a few details have been left out that provide some clarity as to the purpose of this project. Specifically, the project will be the country’s first certified “green mosque,” in full compliance with stringent LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, which is why organizers have named the project Park51, rather than the oft-cited “Cordoba House.”"

• The Lost Generation - The Washington Independent

  "In the report, the ILO warns of “significant consequences for young people as upcoming cohorts of new entrants join the ranks of the already unemployed” and of the “risk of a crisis legacy of a ‘lost generation’ comprised of young people who have dropped out of the labor market, having lost all hope of being able to work for a decent living.”"

• Iran-Israel-US: Goldberg Journalism “If You Build This War, It Will Come” - Enduring America

  "Let’s call this for what it is. Jeffrey Goldberg is not functioning as an analyst here. He is not even carrying out the fundamental task of a reporter. He is serving as a spokesman for the Israeli Government in its attempt to put psychological pressure on Iran, to block any resumption of talks on uranium enrichment, and possibly to push Washington into acceptance of, if not support for, Israel’s military action. Goldberg’s piece has no substance as a critique of the political, diplomatic, and military situation, for it is void of any information of — as opposed to rhetoric about — the state of Iran’s nuclear programme and its international strategy. It is void of any information about Washington’s perspective and approach, including the option — very much “on the table”, to use the cliche invoked for military action — of discussions with Tehran."

• Sorry, kid, first-borns really are smarter - Msnbc

  "Birth order within families has long sparked sibling rivalry, but it might also impact the child's personality and intelligence, a new study suggests. First-borns are typically smarter, while younger siblings get better grades and are more outgoing, the researchers say. "

• Tony Judt: An intellectual hero - Al Jazeera English

  "I only knew Judt in passing as a graduate student at NYU but his reputation was already secure then, as a leading historian of France and the European Left. What was as striking as his superior intellect was his equally clear intellectual courage. He was clearly an intellectual of both the 1960s and of the Left (a much maligned combination in Newt Gingrich's America). But unlike so many of his peers he grasped the inherent contradictions of both while they were happening. And so Judt became an astute and critical observer of why the era and its politics not only failed to bring about revolutionary change in Europe and the US, but produced a conservative backlash that is largely responsible for the slow destruction of the welfare states that had enabled unprecedented prosperity in the West in the decades after the second world war."

• IDF soldier on leave attacks group of Peace Now activists in Tel Aviv - Haaretz

  "An Israel Defense Forces soldier who was on leave attacked a group of left-wing activists from the Peace Now movement while they were passing out flyers in Tel Aviv on Friday. Tens of activists from Peace Now, which advocates a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, gathered at Tel Aviv's Arlozorov Train Station Friday morning and handed out stickers and flyers to people passing by. A soldier from the Israel Defense Force's Givati Bridade approached the group and began tearing down posters that the activists had put up. "

• Israel suffers from evoking Holocaust to justify militant policies - Haaretz

  "There are good and valid reasons for and against attacking Iran, but as long as the Holocaust is part of the equation, those who have to make the call will never be able to reach a reasoned decision. It seems that in the national Israeli psyche, backed up by the education system and the IDF, the only worthwhile lesson of the Holocaust is that Israel should be strong and defend itself, and the only purpose of defending Israel is that there should not be another Holocaust. "

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.

• 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."

• Congressional Cigar Association Is Front For Lobbyists

  "Lobbyists for major banks, insurers, pharmaceutical firms, energy companies and at least one foreign government have been helping organize lavish gatherings of staffers and members of Congress since early 2009, funneling K Street money through an officially chartered staff organization called the Congressional Cigar Association. "

• India's Israeli-Arab tightrope walk - Focus - Al Jazeera English

  "Almost a decade before independence, the father of the Indian freedom movement, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, had clearly articulated his position on the issue. In an editorial in the Harijan, a widely circulated Indian weekly, on November 11, 1938, Gandhi declared: "My sympathies are with the Jews ... but my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me ... Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood? Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home.""

• BBC News - Israel to restrict white phosphorus use in future wars

  "The Israeli military will restrict its use of artillery shells containing white phosphorus, it has told the UN. The controversial weapons cause deadly burns and rights groups say they are banned from use in civilian areas. The Israel Defense Forces used weapons containing white phosphorus during a 22-day assault on Gaza which began in December 2008. In its report to the UN, the IDF said steps would be taken in future to avoid civilian casualties. "

• The Curious Rabbit Case: Teacher Loses 'Rabbit-Phobia' Trial - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

  "A German teacher has lost a defamation suit Tuesday in which she claims that a 16-year-old student spread vicious rumors saying that she has a rabbit phobia. The court case, which triggered nationwide headlines, was dismissed on the grounds that the student proved the teacher's phobia as fact. A teacher in the northern German town of Vechta lost her case Tuesday that would have put to bed the rumor that she's afraid of rabbits. Marion V., 60, a German and geography teacher, made headlines earlier this year by accusing a 16-year-old schoolgirl of defamation, alleging that the student maliciously gossiped that V. suffers from rabbit phobia. The defendant, named as Kim P., caused the stir by drawing a rabbit on the blackboard of V.'s classroom. Upon entering the room and seeing the drawing, V. reportedly fled from her classroom in tears. "

• Abbas: Specific US assurances on borders needed

  "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants the U.S. to spell out its views on the borders of a Palestinian state before resuming direct negotiations with Israel, an adviser said Wednesday, raising a condition that Israel is unlikely to accept. "

I'm in California enjoying the warm beach and the company of good friends, so my reading list is a bit light for the previous days.

• Guard troops to head to border states Aug. 1 - AP

  "National Guard troops will head to the U.S.-Mexico border Aug. 1 for a yearlong deployment to keep a lookout for illegal border crossers and smugglers and help in criminal investigations, federal officials said Monday. The troops will be armed, but can use their weapons only to protect themselves, Gen. Craig McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau said at a Pentagon news conference. The troops will undergo initial training and be fully deployed along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border by September."

• A special report on Egypt: The long wait - The Economist

• Man convicted of rape for consensual sex with woman but told her he was Jewish (English) - Ali Abunimah

  "Jail time for Arab who impersonated a Jew and raped through fraud A court sentenced a resident of East Jerusalem who lied to a young woman and told her that he was Jewish in order to have sexual relations with her to a year in a half of prison time. “Protect the public from such criminals.”"

• China Becomes World's Biggest Energy Consumer - WSJ

  "China is now the world's biggest energy consumer, knocking the U.S. off a perch it held for more than a century, according to new data from the International Energy Agency. The Paris-based agency, whose forecasts are generally regarded as bellwether indicators for the energy industry, said China devoured 2,252 million tons of oil equivalent last year, or about 4% more than the U.S., which burned through 2,170 million tons of oil equivalent. The oil-equivalent metric represents all forms of energy consumed, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas and renewable sources such as hydropower."

• Netanyahu: 'America is a thing you can move very easily' - Checkpoint Washington

  ""I know what America is," Netanyahu told a group of terror victims, apparently not knowing his words were being recorded. "America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won't get in their way." Netanyahu also bragged how he undercut the peace process when he was prime minister during the Clinton administration. "They asked me before the election if I'd honor [the Oslo accords]," he said. "I said I would, but ... I'm going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the '67 borders."

• 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?"