Middle East Watch

475 Article

• Full Text of President Ahmadinejad’s Remarks at U.N. Conference on Racism

  21 April 2009, by Jeremy R. Hammond
  Ahmadinejad speaks at the U.N. conference on racism (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images) This is a rush transcript of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks at the United Nations Durban Review Conference on racism in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 20, 2009. In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful… [Protestors in clown costumes escorted out by security] May he bestow upon his prophets… Praise be upon Allah, the Almighty, who is just, kind, and compassionate. May he (…)  continue
  

• Arabs-Israelis protest against Jewish state’s ’racism’

  31 March 2009,
  Thousands of Arab-Israelis on Monday demonstrated against what they called Israel’s "racism" at a rally commemorating the killing of six people in a 1976 protest against land grabs. Arab-Israeli MPs, mayors and other dignitaries were among the demonstrators in the annual Land Day protest at Deir Hanna village in Israel’s Galilee region. Waving Palestinian flags and green banners - the color of the Islamic movement - as well as the symbols of the various Arab-Israeli parties, the (…)  continue
  

• A racist Jewish state

  11 March 2009,
  Every day the Knesset has the option of passing laws that will advance Israel as a democratic Jewish state or turn it into a racist Jewish state. There is a very thin line between the two. This week, the line was crossed. If the Knesset legal counselor did not consider the bill entitled "the Jewish National Fund Law" as sufficiently racist to keep it off the agenda, it is hard to imagine what legislation she will consider racist. In 1995 the Supreme Court rescued the state from callously (…)  continue
  

• Mitchell: Arab Peace Initiative part of US drive to create Palestinian state

  18 April 2009, by Mohammed Assadi
  US Middle East envoy George Mitchell said Friday that an Arab Peace Initiative should be part of a planned US drive to create a Palestinian state. The 2002 Arab initiative offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full pullout from the lands it seized in the 1967 war, creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees. "The US is committed to the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state where the aspirations of the (…)  continue
  

• Gaza, remember?

  19 April 2009, by Gideon Levy
  Alyan Abu-Aun is lying in his tent, his crutches beside him. He smokes cigarettes and stares into the tiny tent’s empty space. His young son sits on his lap. Ten people are crammed into the tent, about the size of a small room. It has been their home for three months. Nothing remains of their previous home, which the Israel Defense Forces shelled during Operation Cast Lead. They are refugees for a second time; Abu-Aun’s mother still remembers her home in Sumsum, a town that once stood near (…)  continue
  

• Knesset speaker: Umm al-Fahm is an inseparable part of Israel

  19 April 2009, by Yoav Stern
  During a tour of the Israeli Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin sought on Sunday to convey a conciliatory message less than one month after far-rightists staged a demonstration in the city. "I cannot obligate a non-Jewish person to sing ’As long as deep in the heart the soul of a Jew yearns,’ but agitating against the state of Israel is verboten," said Rivlin, who chose to make his first trip since being elected Knesset speaker to Umm al-Fahm. In contrast to (…)  continue
  

• U.S.: Palestinians need not recognize Israel as Jewish state before talks

  19 April 2009, by Akiva Eldar
  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people as a condition for renewing peace talks is unacceptable to the United States, the State Department said during special envoy George Mitchell’s visits over the weekend to Ramallah and Cairo. The State Department released statements saying that the United States would continue to promote a two-state solution. In Ramallah, Mitchell met with Palestinian Authority President (…)  continue
  

• Iran contrary

  16 April 2009, by Stephen M. Walt
  Here’s what our Secretary of State had to say about a certain prominent "rogue state": "[Tehran’s] present state of mind is a combination of aggressive arrogance and obsessions of its own making. There are doubtless many reasons, cultural, historical, political, for this state of mind. . . . I would be inclined, however, to advance the view that a country whose behavior is as violent, irascible, unyielding, and hostile as that of . . . [Iran] is led by leaders whose view of the (…)  continue
  

• Can the United States put pressure on Israel?: A user’s guide

  10 April 2009, by Stephen M. Walt
  Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and now Barack Obama have all publicly stated that the United States seeks a "two-state" solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In other words, the United States supports the creation of a viable Palestinian state in virtually all of the West Bank and Gaza. The new Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu opposes this goal, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has already said that he does not think Israel is bound by its recent (…)  continue
  

• Solving Palestine While Israel Destroys It

  15 April 2009, by Kathleen and Bill Christison
  To a greater degree than perhaps ever before, Washington today is engulfed in denial about Israel and its stupefying behavior, about its murderous policies toward the Palestinians, about the efforts of Israel and its U.S. defenders to force us to ignore its atrocities. Blinders have always been part of the attire of U.S. policymakers and politicians with regard to Israel and Israeli actions, but in the wake of the three-week Israeli assault that laid waste to the tiny territory of Gaza — an (…)  continue