Rendition – the act of nabbing somebody in one country and illegally transporting them to another – started long before the Bush administration. But now, a specific allegation in the days of Barack Obama. Scott Horton reports: Raymond Azar, a 45-year-old Lebanese construction manager with a grade school education, is employed by Sima International, a…
Showing all posts tagged United States
Australian Jew loves colonies and wants to build more and more
Ron Weiser, former President of the Zionist Federation of Australia, is an irregular writer for the Australian Jewish News. His latest column is a real gem, issuing predictably pro-settler sentiments, bashing Barack Obama and urging a hardline against anything even vaguely pro-Palestinian: Returning from Israel, it is interesting to note just how different the situation…
Not forgetting the Holocaust trauma
The Washington Post reports on the passing of an era: Schools across the country will soon be forced to alter the way they teach the most disturbing event of the past century. The reason: Old age is claiming what Hitler could not. For decades, men and women have visited classrooms to give firsthand accounts of…
Will Australia stand up and back Hamas?
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser on the importance of bringing Hamas in from the political cold: Hamas was isolated, violence – predictably – resumed and the whole region paid the price. Israel and America also made attempts to strengthen Fatah, to weaken or destroy Hamas. Such attempts have failed. Fatah’s leadership was not up…
Israel close to bombing Iran?
A story to be placed in the “what the hell?” file: Israel last month asked the United State for permission to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida reported on Friday. The paper quoted a “US diplomatic source located in Jerusalem”, but the report’s credibility was not confirmed. According to the sources, after the opposition…
Chomsky on the Gaza siege
I sent Noam Chomsky my recent article in The Nation about Gaza and his personal response (published with permission) is below: Harsh punishment of Gaza took place long before their preemptive coup in 07, in fact was announced and implemented immediately after the Jan 06 election, both by the US and Israel (with the EU…
Afghanistan: just like Israel?
This Washington Post article outlines the cluster-fuck that is Afghanistan. No real plan, no real direction, lives being lost for no reason, a fundamentally corrupt, US-backed government and a nation that always beats occupiers. Barack Obama, the same old tune. But then this: “We are looking at two decades of supplying a few billion a…
Give us a plan on colonies or stop the side-show
Zvi Bar’el in Haaretz: It should be said from the onset: Do not freeze settlement construction, do not stop it in part or periodically, not for six months, not for a single day. As long as the U.S. administration does not present a comprehensive plan that explains its endgame – what the end will look…
Mr Obama, please continue your current Mid-East plans
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is in the West Bank city of Ramallah, lapping up the wonders of a more open and liberated occupied territory: For Palestinians, long trapped between burgeoning Israeli settlements and an Israeli occupation army, subject to lawlessness in their own cities and the fecklessness of their own political leadership, life…
The Palestinian territories are moving further apart
More (US?) supported madness between the West Bank and Gaza: Authoritative sources in the Fatah movement have asserted to Asharq Al-Awsat that the Palestinian leadership has decided to stop all the funds it pays to the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority’s [PA] budget apart from the salaries of its own employees. According to the…