PRESS ROOM

274 Article

• Ban Ki-Moon advises Israel to change Its Policies

  12 mai 2009,

  The U.N.Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said "time has come" for Israel to "fundamentally" change its policies in the occupied Palestinian territory and said its "genuine" readiness to negotiate "all core" issues will be the true test of its commitment to the two state solution. Addressing a Ministerial meeting on the Middle East under the Presidency of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov here last night, Ban said "the time has come for Israel to fundamentally change its policies (in (…)

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• Criminalizing Criticism of Israel

  7 May 2009, by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

  On October 16, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Israel Lobby’s bill, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act. This legislation requires the US Department of State to monitor anti-semitism world wide.
  To monitor anti-semitism, it has to be defined. What is the definition? Basically, as defined by the Israel Lobby and Abe Foxman, it boils down to any criticism of Israel or Jews.
  Rahm Israel Emanuel hasn’t been mopping floors at the White House. As soon as he gets the Hate Crimes (…)

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• The Emperor’s Old Clothes

  2 May 2009, by Uri Avnery

  EVERYBODY IS talking about the first 100 days of Barack Obama. And there’s a lot to talk about.
  Like a young bull he stormed into the arena. A deluge of new ideas in every direction, a tsunami of practical initiatives, some of which have already begun to be implemented. Clearly he had been thinking about them for a long time and intended to put them into practice from his first moment in office. He put his team together long ago, and his people started to act even before his triumphal (…)

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• U.S. drops spy charges against two ex-AIPAC officials

  2 May 2009,

  Federal prosecutors moved Friday to dismiss espionage-related charges against two former pro-Israel lobbyists accused of disclosing classified U.S. defense information, ending a tortuous inside-the-Beltway legal battle rife with national security intrigue.
  Critics of the prosecution of Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee accused the federal government of trying to criminalize the sort of back-channel discussions between government officials, (…)

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• US Hides Behind Iran Sanctions Threat

  1 May 2009, by Kaveh L Afrasiabi

  Whereas United States President Barack Obama promised in his new year message to Iran that he was committed to a new diplomacy that "will not be advanced by threats", a month later this is precisely what is happening. This is in light of new White House-backed legislation in the US Congress that aims to impose "crippling sanctions" on Iran by targeting its energy imports.
  The Iran Sanctions Enhancement Act, introduced by a bipartisan group of US senators, states in its preamble that its (…)

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• Devouring Jerusalem

  27 March 2009, by Khalid Amayreh

  In its increasingly rabid efforts to consolidate control of traditionally Arab-East Jerusalem, Israel this week moved to suppress Palestinian cultural activities associated with the city being declared the capital of Arab culture for 2009.
  On 19 March heavily armed paramilitary police violently dispersed a meeting at the Ambassador Hotel in East Jerusalem, confiscating posters, leaflets, placards and computers.
  Israeli police also raided schools, social clubs and community centres to (…)

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• Soldier says rabbis pushed "religious war" in Gaza

  20 March 2009, by Douglas Hamilton

  Rabbis in the Israeli army told battlefield troops in January’s Gaza offensive they were fighting a "religious war" against gentiles, according to one army commander’s account published on Friday.
  "Their message was very clear: we are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land," he said.
  The account by Ram, a pseudonym to shield the soldier’s (…)

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• Obama and "Two States"

  30 April 2009, by Ellen Cantarow

  A false claim is wafting through the press: Obama is hanging tough with Benjamin Netanyahu, he’s going to “twist Israel’s arm” and at long last force the Jewish state into a two-state agreement, settling the Israel-Palestine question for good. There’s even talk that Obama backs the Arab League’s 2002 peace initiative, complete with its main demand: Israel’s withdrawal to its 1967 borders.
  There’s no proof for any of this. Obama has said nothing about when, where, and with what boundaries a (…)

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• If I were a Palestinian

  27 avril 2009, par Akiva Eldar

  In a moment of candor, Ehud Barak once said : "If I were a Palestinian of the right age, I would join, at some point, one of the terrorist groups."
  If I were a Palestinian, of any age, I would declare an all-out war on all terrorist groups and fulfill the demand of the Jews to recognize the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. Furthermore, as a present on the birthday of the Jewish people, as it completes 61 years of existence, I would announce that I also respect its (…)

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• Ahmadinejad, time for a change of tactics?

  21 April 2009, by Mary Rizzo

  Every time I see Ahmadinejad go to speak at a forum, I start to put my hands in my hair. It is not that I disagree with the man, it’s simply that I can’t figure out why he has still not yet learned how the game works at least where the majority of the world’s power structure is located. It is enough for him to be announced as a visitor, be it at Columbia University, the UN General Assembly or an international forum on racism, and all the players line up to go through the motions. While his (…)

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