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By Fawwaz Traboulsi from Zmag

The following article by Fawwaz Traboulsi appeared in the Beirut daily as-Safir of December 2, 2009.
Traboulsi's article is an assessment and left critique of the main themes in Hezbollah's new political platform. The platform was released on November 30 at the conclusion of a general congress that had met intermittently over several months. It was published partially or entirely in several Arabic-language media outlets, inside and outside Lebanon, in early December 2009. The platform now becomes Hezbollah's political manifesto in place of its founding document, its so-called 1985 Open Letter.

Door: Juan Cole, Informed Comment Thursday, January 07, 2010

 
In the past three weeks, Iran observers have been baffled by the range of opinion appearing on the op-ed page of The New York Times concerning Iran, and the uneven reporting on that country. Before the holidays, Alan Kuperman, a political scientist at the University of Texas Austin, called for bombing Iran-- becoming the first respectable academic in the US to take a position usually associated with discredited angry Neoconservatives such as John Bolton. Kuperman's argument is wrong in almost every particular, and that the NYT editors published it was considered alarming by many Iranists. We all remember how the newspaper printed a long series of bald-faced lies and easily disproved fantasies about 'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq in 2002, which certainly helped legitimate and pave the way for war on that country. We worried that the fix was in against Iran.

Door: Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 10 November 2009
Anyone who rejects the two-state solution, won't bring a one-state solution. They will instead bring one war, not one state. A bloody war with no end. -- Israeli President Shimon Peres, 7 November 2009.

One of the most commonly voiced objections to a one-state solution for Palestine/Israel stems from the accurate observation that the vast majority of Israeli Jews reject it, and fear being "swamped" by a Palestinian majority. Across the political spectrum, Israeli Jews insist on maintaining a separate Jewish-majority state.

Door:Harm Ede Botje / Freke Vuijst uit de VN 15 oktober 2009

Geert Wilders’ ‘Fitna’ blijkt gebaseerd op de twee jaar eerder uitgebrachte film ‘Obsession’. Wie zijn de makers van die Israëlische film?

Geert Wilders is een grote vriend van Israël. Als middelbare scholier trok hij naar het beloofde land om te werken in een moshav, een collectieve boerderij op de bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever.

Onlangs doken van die tijd foto’s op die in Vrij Nederland werden gepubliceerd. Naar eigen zeggen is Wilders sindsdien tientallen keren in Israël geweest. Tijdens zijn VVD-jaren kwam hij al steevast op voor de belangen van Israël, wees hij voortdurend op de gevaren van Iran dat met zijn lange-afstandsraketten Israël van de kaart zou kunnen vegen. Maar hij was ook een voorstander van het vredesproces met de Palestijnen.

By: Yousef Munayyer
This article is republished from the website of The Palestine Center.

Anyone watching the Middle East and the Occupied Palestinian Territories recently can tell you that anger and rage is bubbling just below the surface. What may not seem apparent is that a new intifada, or uprising, may be right around the corner.

Door: OMAR BARGHOUTI uit Counterpunch

Palestinian civil society has strongly and almost unanimously condemned the Palestinian Authority's latest decision to delay adoption by the UN Human Rights Council of the report prepared by the UN Fact-Finding Mission, headed by justice Richard Goldstone, into the recent Israeli war of aggression against the Palestinian people in the occupied Gaza Strip.  A common demand in almost all Palestinian statements issued in this respect was for the UN to adopt the report and act without undue delay on its recommendations in order to bring an end to Israel's criminal impunity and to hold it accountable before international law for its war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza and, indeed, all over the occupied Palestinian territory.  

Funded by U.S. neocons, Shalem researchers now carving Israeli policy
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz18-05-20009

Stephen M. Walt – Foreign Policy

19 januari 2009

[Dit vertaalde artikel is onderaan van commentaar voorzien]

January 26, 2009 By Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky's ZSpace Page

Barack Obama is recognized to be a person of acute intelligence, a legal scholar, careful with his choice of words. He deserves to be taken seriously - both what he says, and what he omits. Particularly significant is his first substantive statement on foreign affairs, on January 22, at the State Department, when introducing George Mitchell to serve as his special envoy for Middle East peace.