Peace and Justice Post

Islamic Jihad says ‘will halt rockets if Israel stops raids’ against Palestinians in besieged Gaza.

Middle East Online, Aug. 25, 2011

‘The truce is related to Israel action’

GAZA CITY – A series of Israeli air strikes on Gaza over a 24-hour period killed nine Palestinians and injured 30, a spokesman for the enclave’s emergency services told AFP on Thursday.

Adham Abu Selmiya said nine people had been killed in a series of raids across the strip that ended before dawn on Thursday.

Among the dead, at least two were Islamic Jihad militants.

The first attack on Wednesday hit a car in the southern city of Rafah, killing 34-year old Jihad militant Ismail al-Ismar.

Continues >>

By Paul Craig Roberts,  opednews.com, Aug. 24, 2011

In a few days it will be the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001. How well has the US government’s official account of the event held up over the decade?

Not very well. The chairman, vice chairman, and senior legal counsel of the 9/11 Commission wrote books partially disassociating themselves from the commission’s report. They said that the Bush administration put obstacles in their path, that information was withheld from them, that President Bush agreed to testify only if he was chaperoned by Vice President Cheney and neither were put under oath, that Pentagon and FAA officials lied to the commission and that the commission considered referring the false testimony for investigation for obstruction of justice.

Continues >>

A US drone fired a pair of missile attacks against the Nork area of the town of Miramshah in North Waziristan Agency today, killing at least five people who witnesses described as local tribesmen.

The strike was the fifth drone attack by the US so far this month, and the 51st of the year. Reports have an estimated 800 people slain this year alone in the attacks, which have escalated dramatically since President Obama took office in 2009.

The latest escalations have spawned growing concern in the area, with some villagers complaining that the constant drone flights overhead are interrupting their nightly prayers and sparking fear among tribesmen.

Research into the strikes have indicated that a large number of the slain are likely innocent civilians, and even among the “suspects” only a few dozen have ever been named as confirmed militants out of thousands killed since 2009.

We may all applaud Gaddafi’s downfall, but it remains the case that Britain’s intervention in Libya was wrong

Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, Aug. 23, 2011

‘If Cameron wants to take credit for the removal of Gaddafi then he cannot avoid responsibility for the aftermath.’ Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

The downfall of a dictator is always welcome. Especially welcome is the downfall of Gaddafi of Libya. He was not the worst of his genre, but for 42 years was the beneficiary of the crassest western intervention, veering between ineffective sanctions and ostracism and Tony Blair’s cringing, oil-drenched “friendship”. More welcome still would have been his downfall clearly at the hands of his own people, not courtesy of western armies.

Continues >>

An Article by the Asian Human Rights Commission

PAKISTAN: One year after the floods-women continue their struggle to rebuild their lives & livelihoods

By Bushra Khaliq

One year ago during the months of July and August the floodwaters that ravaged the southern parts of Pakistan have long receded. Though gone are the makeshift tent camps on roadsides but revival of normal life and livelihood still remain a challenge. Thousands continue a daily struggle to support their families and re-establish livelihoods. As a new monsoon season is in full swing, last year’s trauma and economic pain still linger. While last year’s victims struggle to recover, others now worry that changing world weather patterns will cause renewed flooding.

Continues >>

by Innovative Minds, Dissident Voice,  August 20th, 2011

On Tuesday 14th June 2011 human rights activists came together to oppose the visit of Israeli historian Benny Morris to the London School of Economics.

The visit was organised by the Anglo Israel Association, whose honorary president is the Israeli Ambassador. The Anglo Israel Association boast that their most fruitful work is as propagandists for Israel bringing ‘opinion formers’ to the UK on speaking tours in partnership with British think-tanks and universities to push the Israeli perspective.

Benny Morris is well known for his racist views of Arabs and Muslims, his support and whitewashing of ethnic cleansing and his justification of genocide.

Continues >>

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Countercurrents.com, Aug. 22, 2011

India at the moment is at the cross roads. Anna Hazare and his team have presented a Janlokpal bill which according to them will wipe out corruption from India. They feel that corruption is the root cause of all our evils. Now, one does not know whether they consider the caste system, untouchability, dowry as corruption or not. We do not know whether billions of rupees of cash, Gold and other treasure in our religious institutions are corruption free or meant for something else.

Continues >>

Pro-Israel organizations, led by AIPAC have too often sought to advance short-term goals over long-term interests, to the detriment of genuine advocacy in support of peacemaking, stresses Alon Ben-Meir.

Middle East Online, Aug. 23, 2011

The effusive standing ovations Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received during his speech to a joint session of Congress despite his recent public clashes with President Obama, raised anew questions of the power and influence of the so-called “Israel lobby,” led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Suggestions that AIPAC is all-powerful in Washington, or that its aims and actions are nefarious, are baseless. AIPAC is an effective interest group that has wielded grassroots activism and political contributions to foster a closer relationship between the United States and the State of Israel based largely on common interests, values, and cultural affinity. Yet criticism of AIPAC is not unwarranted, especially with regard to its muted efforts to support actions to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East.

Continues >>

The remaining Arab potentates and tyrants have spent a second sleepless night. How soon will the liberators of Tripoli metamorphose into the liberators of Damascus and Aleppo and Homs? Or of Amman? Or Jerusalem? Or of Bahrain or Riyadh? It’s not the same, of course.

The Arab Spring-Summer-Autumn has proved not just that the old colonial frontiers remain inviolate – an awful tribute to imperialism, I suppose – but that every revolution has its own characteristics. If all Arab uprisings have their clutch of martyrs, some rebellions are more violent than others. As Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said at the start of his own eventual downfall, “Libya is not Tunisia, it’s not Egypt…It will become civil war. There will be bloodshed on the streets.” And there was.

Continues >>