By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Israel, despite the attempts of current Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to cast it as a monochrome “Jewish state,” has a divided and complicated population. Some 21 percent or 1.7 million of the 8 million Israelis are of Palestinian heritage, the majority of those being Muslim. About 300,000 Israelis […]
Archives for February 2015
Negev Bedouin Resist Israeli Demolitions “To Show We Exist”
By Silvia Boarini AL ARAQIB, Negev Desert, Israel (IPS) – Lehavim Junction in the northern Negev in Israel has been the backdrop to protests against home demolitions in Bedouin localities for the past four and half years. Every Sunday, inhabitants of the Bedouin village of Al Araqib and their supporters stand behind a large banner […]
Mother Jones Catches Bill O’Reilly Lying About Falkland Island War Coverage
Ben Mankiewicz, Jimmy Dore, John Iadarola, and Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks) | – “After NBC News suspended anchor Brian Williams for erroneously claiming that he was nearly shot down in a helicopter while covering the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly went on a tear. On his television […]
Post-Hostilities Gaza an ‘Increasingly Toxic Environment’ UN Warns
By IMEMC News & Agencies A top United Nations official warned, on Wednesday, of an ‘increasingly toxic environment’ in the besieged Gaza Strip and called on Israel to release Palestinian tax revenues. Briefing the UN Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman discussed what he described […]
Giuliani & Obama: Immigrant Families and Really Loving America
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Rudy Giuliani maintains that Barack Obama doesn’t love the United States of America because of the way he was brought up. Obama was largely brought up after age 10 by his grandmother and grandfather on his mother’s side, Madelynn Dunham and Stanley Armour Dunham. Stanley Dunham enlisted in […]
Oklahoma: AP History Abandoned For Christian Agenda
TheLipTV | – “An Oklahoma legislative committee just approved an “emergency” bill introduced by Representative Dan Fisher that would cut state funding for Advanced Placement (AP) US History. Fisher’s agenda seems to be related to an attack on the separation between church and state and the exclusion of a Christian perspective in school history courses. […]
War Porn: Hollywood and War from World War II to “American Sniper”
By Peter Van Buren | (Tomdispatch.com) – In the age of the all-volunteer military and an endless stream of war zone losses and ties, it can be hard to keep Homeland enthusiasm up for perpetual war. After all, you don’t get a 9/11 every year to refresh those images of the barbarians at the airport […]
AP Investigates: Bulk of Gaza Deaths Civilians
Associated Press | – “AP Exclusive: High civilian death toll in Gaza house strikes during Israeli conflict with Hamas militant group during the summer of 2014. Over 60 percent of those deaths were children, women and older men, all presumed to be civilians.” AP: “AP Investigates: Bulk of Gaza Deaths Civilians”
Egypt: Sisi’s struggle with the Muslim Brotherhood and his Strikes on ISIL/ Daesh in Libya
By Henry Clements | (Informed Comment) – Egyptian president Abdel Fatah El-Sisi wants to rally the international community against terrorism in the Middle East. In a televised speech earlier this week he asserted, “Egypt and countries across the world are facing a fierce battle with terrorist organizations that adopt extremist ideology and share the same […]