Middle East Watch

475 مقال

• Elie Wiesel l’imposteur et Jérusalem

  18 avril 2010, par Alain Gresh

  Dans une publicité intitulée « For Jerusalem » et reproduite par l’International Herald Tribune (16 avril 2010), Elie Wiesel, prix Nobel de la paix, réaffirme son inquiétude. Ce texte affirme hautement que « Jérusalem est au-dessus de la politique ». Ce qui, pour l’auteur, signifie qu’elle doit... rester israélienne.
  Pour lui, précise-t-il, sa présence dans l’histoire juive est totale, elle est mentionnée « 600 fois dans les écritures et pas une seule fois dans le Coran ». Outre que cela (…)

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• Bill Clinton Encourages Obama on Mideast Peace Effort

  19 April 2010, by Laura Meckler

  Former President Bill Clinton said he would "strongly support" an effort by President Barack Obama to issue his own Middle East peace plan, something now under discussion at the White House.
  "We need to do something to deprive both sides of any excuse not to engage in serious negotiations," Mr. Clinton said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC’s "This Week." "If this is the tactic he decides to adopt, I will strongly support it."
  Mr. Clinton said he has talked the issue over with Mr. (…)

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• Obama Speech Signals a U.S. Shift on Middle East

  14 April 2010, by MARK LANDLER, HELENE COOPER

  It was just a phrase at the end of President Obama’s news conference on Tuesday, but it was a stark reminder of a far-reaching shift in how the United States views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how aggressively it might push for a peace agreement.
  When Mr. Obama declared that resolving the long-running Middle East dispute was a “vital national security interest of the United States,” he was highlighting a change that has resulted from a lengthy debate among his top officials over (…)

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• Obama: Israel Should Sign NPT

  13 April 2010, by Jason Ditz

  President Barack Obama managed to avoid Israel’s nuclear program nearly entirely for the high profile nuclear summit, but was unable to successfully dodge a question at the closing press conference about Israel’s non-membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
  Though the bulk of Obama’s talks dealt with securing the weapons grade nuclear stockpiles of such rogue nations as Canada and Chile, when pressed he eventually insisted that he wanted every nation, including Israel to (…)

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• Ethnic Cleansing by any other name

  14 April 2010, by Yousef Munayyer

  Background
  The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Israel maintains authoritative jurisdiction over the happenings in the West Bank via its military apparatus. Decisions governing the simplest aspects of Palestinian life, from traveling from one area to another to building a home, ultimately lie under the jurisdiction of the Israeli Military’s High Command in the West Bank. In October of 2009, amendments were made to military orders governing the legitimate presence of (…)

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• The Dark Underbelly of Israel’s Security State

  9 April 2010, by Jonathan Cook

  Next week 23-year-old Anat Kamm is due to stand trial for her life — or rather the state’s demand that she serve a life sentence for passing secret documents to an Israeli reporter, Uri Blau, of the liberal Haaretz daily. She is charged with spying.
  Blau himself is in hiding in London, facing, if not a Mossad hit squad, at least the stringent efforts of Israel’s security services to get him back to Israel over the opposition of his editors, who fear he will be put away too.
  This episode (…)

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• IDF bid to expel West Bank Palestinians is a step too far

  12 April 2010,

  A new military order will take effect this week, enabling the army to deport tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank and prosecute them on infiltration charges, which carry long prison terms. The order, uncovered by Amira Hass in Haaretz yesterday, bears the signature of Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni in his previous capacity as commander of the Israel Defense Forces in Judea and Samaria.
  The order’s vague language will allow army officers to exploit it arbitrarily to carry out mass (…)

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• Covering Up Civilian Deaths

  6 avril 2010, par Stephen Soldz

  The recent news brought reports of two incidents in two countries where US troops killed civilians and then lied to cover up the evidence. These are but the latest of a steady stream of lies from military and Pentagon sources about the killing of civilians.
  Afghanistan : Killing Pregnant Women and Government Officials
  In Afghanistan, the military has finally admitted that Special Forces troops killed two pregnant Afghan women and a girl in a February raid in which Afghan government (…)

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• Land Day : its origins and significance

  30 March 2010, by Sawsan Ramahi

  Land Day is considered to be a milestone in the history of the Palestinian struggle. It is the day when the Palestinian people declared their commitment to defending the land of their forefathers, and maintain their identity and national rights, despite the ongoing Israeli massacres, terrorism and abuse. It is the day when the Palestinian people stood up to Israeli efforts to seize and Judaize Palestinian land and eliminate its Arab citizens by repressive, brutal and immoral means.
  Land (…)

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• Britain’s policy on Palestine is hypocritical, duplicitous and mendacious

  15 March 2010, by Khalid Amayreh

  Last week, a few Palestinian journalists and I had the opportunity to meet with Martin Day, a spokesman of the British government. The meeting, which was hosted by the Arabic Media Internet Network (AMIN), took place in Ramallah. In his introductory remarks, Day gave the impression that the imminent renewal of peace talks between the almost completely helpless Palestinian Authority (PA) and a brazenly insolent Israel, ruled by the most hawkish government in the Jewish state’s history, will (…)

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