Peace and Justice Post

The Huffington Post, July 16, 2010

A newly released video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could add some additional strain to the sometimes tense relationship between him and President Obama.

In the video, which is from 2001, Netanyahu — who reportedly did not know his speech was being recorded — speaks frankly in Hebrew about relations with the Clinton White House and the peace process.

As noted in Haaretz, Netanyahu seems to boast of his knowledge of the US by saying, “I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won’t get in their way.”

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U.S.. Assistant Secretary of State, Andrew Shapiro, stated Friday that the US government intends to grant Israel the amount of 2.775 Billion U.S. Dollars in what was described as the largest single military-security aid grant to Israel.

He said that the money is considered a special military-security aid grant to Israel in order for Israel to ensure “its security needs are met under the current circumstances”.

The Obama administration already asked the Congress to grant this amount to Israel.
His statements came as he addressed the US-Israeli relationships on Friday during a speech at the Brookings Saban Center for Middle East Policy.

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UCANEWS.com, July 16, 2010

Nurses protest against the rape and attempted murder of a Catholic student nurse in Karachi

Angry Christians and medical staff in Karachi are demanding swift justice against a Muslim doctor for the alleged rape and attempted murder of a Catholic student nurse.

Magdalene Ashraf, 22, is in critical condition after being discovered on July 13 with head injuries outside a doctors’ hostel at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi.

The student nurse jumped from the second-floor window of a room belonging to Jabbar Memon, a Muslim doctor, hospital security guards said.

Ashraff has undergone brain surgery and doctors plan to conduct a DNA test to find out if she was gang-raped.

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By Chrles E. Carlson, Intifada Palestine, July 11, 2010

The Source of the Problem in the Middle East

The French author, Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote Democracy in America when he traveled here in the first third of the 19th Century. In ringing tones he sang the praises of America’s invulnerable strength and spirit. He attributed its greatness to its citizens’ sense of morality… even with the abundant church attendances he observed in America. De Tocqueville wrote in French and is credited with this familiar quote: America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.

De Tocqueville could see the power of America, but he could not have known in 1830 that she was soon to be under an attack aimed at its churches and the very sense of morality that he extolled.

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Speaking today at a reception for her Israeli counterpart, US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice vowed that the United States would remain eternally committed to ensuring Israel’s regional military superiority and promised that they would continue to shield Israel from diplomatic fallout for its behavior at the United Nations.

US Ambassador Susan Rice (left)

“As U.S. President Barack Obama pledged, we will continue U.S. efforts to combat all international attempts to challenge the legitimacy of Israel—including and especially at the United Nations,” Rice declared.

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Israel has had many rightist leaders since Menachem Begin promised “many Elon Morehs,” but there has never been one like Netanyahu, who wants to do it by deceit.

By Gideon Levy, Haaretz/Israel, July 15, 2010

This video should have been banned for broadcast to minors. This video should have been shown in every home in Israel, then sent to Washington and Ramallah. Banned for viewing by children so as not to corrupt them, and distributed around the country and the world so that everyone will know who leads the government of Israel. Channel 10 presented: The real (and deceitful ) face of Binyamin Netanyahu. Broadcast on Friday night on “This Week with Miki Rosenthal,” it was filmed secretly in 2001, during a visit by Citizen Netanyahu to the home of a bereaved family in the settlement of Ofra, and astoundingly, it has not created a stir.

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Cluster bombs are in the news again, thanks to a recent report from Amnesty International.

The human rights agency has confirmed that 35 women and children were killed following the latest US attacks on an alleged al-Qaeda hideout in Yemen. Initially, there were attempts to bury the story, and Yemen officially denied that civilians were killed as a result of the December 17 attack on al-Majala in southern Yemen. However, it has been simply impossible to conceal what is now considered the largest loss of life in one single US attack in the country.

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Sam Stein, The Huffington Post, July 13, 2010

The top Senate Democrat on defense issues said on Tuesday that he would like to see an expansion of the U.S. military’s controversial drone-strike operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told a group of reporters that he favors targeting the militant insurgent group, the Haqqani network, through drone strikes — something that U.S. forces don’t currently do.

“As a matter of fact, I think we have to include on the list other threats to the Afghan mission,” Levin said, during a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “We have to have, I believe, we should have on our list the headquarters of the Haqqani network. We know where they are. We know where that headquarters is… I don’t think they should be off-limits to those strikes. They directly threaten the Afghan mission.”

“I think we have got to have them on a list of targets, absolutely,” he added, after the breakfast. “I don’t see any reason why they are not on a target list and I won’t be surprised if they are. So I’m not gonna go beyond that.”

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