All Species Evolved From Single Cell.

Creationism called "absolutely horrible hypothesis"—statistically speaking.
All life on Earth evolved from a single-celled organism that lived roughly 3.5 billion years ago, a new study seems to confirm.

The study supports the widely held "universal common ancestor" theory first proposed by Charles Darwin more than 150 years ago.

Using computer models and statistical methods, biochemist Douglas Theobald calculated the odds that all species from the three main groups, or "domains," of life evolved from a common ancestor—versus, say, descending from several different life-forms or arising in their present form, Adam and Eve style.

The domains are bacteria, bacteria-like microbes called Archaea, and eukaryotes, the group that includes plants and other multicellular species, such as humans.

The "best competing multiple ancestry hypothesis" has one species giving rise to bacteria and one giving rise to Archaea and eukaryotes, said Theobald, a biochemist at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

But, based on the new analysis, the odds of that are "just astronomically enormous," he said. "The number's so big, it's kind of silly to say it"—1 in 10 to the 2,680th power, or 1 followed by 2,680 zeros.
National Geographic

In a trial Australian study, students abandon religious classes in favour of ethics classes

Australian Students Flock to Ethics Courses
"The controversial trial of secular ethics classes has ”decimated” Protestant scripture classes in the 10 NSW schools where it has been introduced as an alternative for non-religious children, with the classes losing about 47 per cent of enrolled students.

The figure was calculated by the Sydney Anglican diocese, which is so concerned about the trial that it has created a fund-raising website to ”protect SRE” (special religious education)."

First Large-Scale Formal Quantitative Test Confirms Darwin's Theory of Universal Common Ancestry

ScienceDaily (May 12, 2010) — More than 150 years ago, Darwin proposed the theory of universal common ancestry (UCA), linking all forms of life by a shared genetic heritage from single-celled microorganisms to humans. Until now, the theory that makes ladybugs, oak trees, champagne yeast and humans distant relatives has remained beyond the scope of a formal test. Now, a Brandeis biochemist reports in Nature the results of the first large scale, quantitative test of the famous theory that underpins modern evolutionary biology.

The results of the study confirm that Darwin had it right all along. In his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, the British naturalist proposed that, "all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form." Over the last century and a half, qualitative evidence for this theory has steadily grown, in the numerous, surprising transitional forms found in the fossil record, for example, and in the identification of sweeping fundamental biological similarities at the molecular level.

An Israeli on Nakba Day: ‘Our humanity is bound up with your right to return’

(A Palestinian overlooks a refugee camp, 1948)

By Eitan Bronstein( Executive Director of the the Israeli NGO Zochrot. Zochrot's aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian Nakba and their slogan is "To commemorate, witness, acknowledge, and repair".)

My sisters and brothers the refugees of Palestinian, today is the 15th of May, the Nakba Day, and I have one request from you; a heartfelt request from the son of occupiers, as an occupier, to those who paid the price for this occupation.

No, I do not ask for forgiveness for the occupation, or the destruction and expulsion that occurred in the Nakba of 1948. I can’t really expect forgiveness for these horrors, not in the true sense of forgiveness, the religious or spiritual sense. And since this forgiveness cannot truly take place, so can Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation occur only as a political and cultural settlement that will allow us to stop the killing and the mutual fear (and this mutuality does not mean symmetry, because it absolutely does not exist between the sides). Religious forgiveness belongs, therefore, to a different dimension, an unrealistic dimension utopian to a radical degree. This perhaps is a Platonic idea or guiding principle that guides us in the right direction that we must strive towards even if we’ll never get there.
Mondoweiss

Israeli Settler Hits Sheep with his Rifle near At-Tuwani

AtTuwaniProject — March 24, 2010 — On 18 March 2010, an Israeli settlement security guard from the South Hebron Hills settlement of Ma'on kicked and hit sheep with his rifle near the village of At-Tuwani. Israeli settlers in the South Hebron Hills routinely chase Palestinian shepherds off of their land through the use of intimidation and force. This area has seen shepherds beaten and arrested and livestock poisoned and shot, in an attempt to keep Palestinians shepherds off the land. These attacks are most often carried out on land that is privately-owned Palestinian land.
Samuel Nichols of the Christian Peacemaker teams comments on the video he took below in the occupied Hebron hills. "Myself and a CPT colleague, were providing accompaniment to a family who routinely graze their flock near the settlement of Ma'on... Worth noting is that settlement security guards' salaries are paid by the Israeli military. So this is a settler, living in Ma'on, who is an employee of the Israeli Defense Forces."
For more information see Christian Peacemaker Teams: http://www.cpt.org/work/palestine/tuwani

‘The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa’

Adam Horowitz (Mondoweiss is publishing excerpts here)
"Lately we have been following Sasha Polakow-Suransky's attempts to rebut Israel's supporters' latest smear campaign to derail the Goldstone Report - namely Judge Goldstone's relationship to the apartheid government in South Africa. Polakow-Suransky has succinctly pointed out that if anyone is to be ashamed of their support for apartheid it should be Israel, who served as one of South Africa's primary arms suppliers during that period.

Polakow-Suransky is in a position to know. Later this month his book The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa will be coming out, and we're lucky to be able to give you a sneak peek. Below is the book's prologue which gives a good overview of all the book."

Is There Hope for a Two-State Solution?

By NASEER ARURI( Chancellor Professor (Emeritus) at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Author of Dishonest Broker, published by South End Press, Cambridge, MA.

Perhaps it is more appropriate to begin with the question of whether a two-state settlement has ever been possible and/or viable at anytime at all since 1948. This essay begins by delineating the salient factors which dealt a severe blow to the two-state solution. The long diplomatic paralysis and the impediments to a two-state solution, are embedded in the “peace process” itself, and in the ongoing Zionist consensus that pre-1948 Palestine from the River Jordan to he Mediterranean Sea should be a single state under exclusive Israeli sovereignty. In fact, the real function of the “peace process” has been to Shelter Israel from the threat of peace. The peace process is a misnomer that has enabled Israel to escape its obligations to the Palestinian people under international law. Instead, such obligations have been effectively replaced by Israeli decrees presented as American peace initiatives.

As long as the termination of the Israeli occupation is not on the active Israeli agenda, and as long as the political forces in Israel are united in their rejection of a contiguous, viable and practicable Palestinian state, Peace will not be at hand. As long as this consensus aims to destroy the political and national existence of the whole Palestinian community, and deny it the possibility of self-determination, there will be no more than one Israeli state in historic (mandatory) Palestine. This policy, known as “politicide,” may also include partial or total ethnic cleansing. The late Israeli professor, Tanya Rienhart, wrote that “the only two choices the Israeli political system has generated for the Palestinians are apartheid or ethnic cleansing (transfer). Apartheid is the 'enlightened' Labour party's program (as in the Allon or Oslo plan), while the other pole is advocating slow suffocation of the Palestinians, until the eventual ‘transfer’ (mass expulsion) can be accomplished. This is what Israel has been doing to the Palestinian people, persistently since 1948 —destroying the very fabric of the Palestinian nation. Why has peace been such a threat to Israeli leaders?
Counterpunch (via the Palestinian Pundit)

The Nakba continues

"Sixty-two years ago tomorrow, more than 726,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes and lands to make way for the State of Israel. They have been prevented from returning ever since. Hundreds of Palestinian villages and neighborhoods were destroyed. Today, over seven million Palestinian refugees live in exile. Of those, more than 1.3 million Palestinians continue to live in 58 UN-administered refugee camps.
In other conflicts, refugee rights have been honored and respected, including the right of return, restitution and compensation. In stark contrast, however, Israel refuses to even recognize the Palestinian right of return, thus continuing to deny the refugees’ basic rights.

The Palestinian Nakba continues to this day, as Israeli practices and policies of evictions, home demolitions, deportations, settlement activities, wall-building as well as closure and siege in both the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip generate new waves of displaced persons."

THE CRUCIFIXION OF JUDGE GOLDSTONE

Pins in the Goldstone voodoo doll
By Hagai El-Ad/Haaretz
What will they come up with next? The campaign to discredit Judge Richard Goldstone, his fact-finding commission and the report that now bears his name seems to reach new heights every week. The latest installment in this high-drama farce has been the revelations about Goldstone’s record during apartheid-era South Africa, and the implication that his report can therefore be disregarded. The mind reels at the intensity of attempts by Israeli officials and others to do everything to dodge the real questions of accountability, policy and justice that have been lingering inconveniently since Operation Cast Lead. But inconvenient questions do tend to linger, and the attempts to deploy an ever-thicker smokescreen usually only draw more attention to what may be hidden behind it.

"Death To The Arabs"

There has been lots of talk again about a One or Two State Solution here in Israel/Palestine… After you watch the following ‘celebration’ held in Jerusalem’s Old City…. complete with chants of “Death to the Arabs” …. ask yourself one question….
If you were a Palestinian, would you want to share a state with these animals?

Appropriate punishment

Cagle Cartoon

Trouble ahead

Cagle Cartoon

Vanunu Sentenced To Three Months imprisonment

"Mordechai Vanunu, was sentenced, Tuesday, to three months imprisonment after he refused to perform community service in West Jerusalem, fearing harassment from fundamentalist Jews.
Yet, the Israeli Prosecution argued further than that and claimed that Vanunu can still harm the state’s security.

Fascist Settlers Torch 300 years old Olive trees In Silwan

A group of fundamentalist Israeli settlers torched on Wednesday at night an 11-Dunam olive orchard in Al Rababa valley, in Silwan, south of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Maan news Agency reported that three olive trees, over 300 years old, were burnt down while dozens of trees were partially burnt.

The attack took place while thousands of Jewish settlers held a provocative procession in Silwan under extensive Israeli police presence. Yet, the police did not prevent the settlers from torching the orchard.

Iran: Execution of a Trade Unionist

(Borrowed from Swearing At The Telly, thanks Jemmy)
"The ITUC is deeply shocked and has strongly condemned the recent execution of the teacher and trade unionist Farzad Kamangar, together with four other prisoners on Sunday 9 May. According to the information received by the ITUC, Farzad Kamangar was sentenced after a court process that did not meet international or Iranian standards for a fair trial.

The ITUC has also denounced the inhumane treatment of Farzad Kamangar’s family, who were not informed before the execution took place.

The ITUC has already written to the president of Iran on several occasions to strongly condemn attacks by the Iranian authorities on independent trade unions in the country and the intensification of repression against the Iranian people in general and trade unionists in particular and to protest against the latest wave of repression that has targeted trade unionists in this country.

“The ITUC is shocked with what happened to Farzad Kamangar. Imprisoned trade unionists must be freed and all other threats of imprisonment against independent trade unionists for their legitimate activities must be lifted,” said Guy Ryder, ITUC general secretary.

In a letter to the Iranian authorities the ITUC urges the Iranian president to halt any further escalation of trade union repression and human rights abuses against trade union members. The ITUC will complain to the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association about this gross violation of the principles of the ILO, and it will call on all of its affiliates across the entire world to denounce this inhumane act."

It’s the racism, stupid

A necessary history lesson for anybody who wants to forget the reasons South Africa and Israel were once good friends:

In October 1985, as it happens, the editor of [Israel's biggest newspaper] Yediot Ahronoth’s weekend magazine, Aharon Shamir, came to South Africa to meet with a mid-level Foreign Ministry functionary. When the bureaucrat complained that South Africa was being denounced everywhere as undemocratic but could not risk giving blacks the vote, Shamir advised: “Give the blacks the vote very slowly. See how it works. Bit by bit. If you see that your bit by bit approach is not working, change it. But make the world believe you are sincere. You have to be hypocritical to survive.”

Americans murdering Afghans, says Seymour Hersh

HERSH: The purpose of my [Abu Ghraib] stories was to take it out of the field and into the White House. It's not that the President or the Secretary of Defense Mr. Rumsfeld, or Bush, or Cheney, it's not that they knew what happened in Abu Ghraib. It's that they had allowed this kind of activity to happen.

And I'll tell you right now, one of the great tragedies of my country is that Mr. Obama is looking the other way, because equally horrible things are happening to prisoners, to those we capture in Afghanistan. They're being executed on the battlefield. It's unbelievable stuff going on there that doesn't necessarily get reported. Things don't change.

What they've done in the field now is, they tell the troops, you have to make a determination within a day or two or so whether or not the prisoners you have, the detainees, are Taliban. You must extract whatever tactical intelligence you can get, as opposed to strategic, long-range intelligence, immediately. And if you cannot conclude they're Taliban, you must turn them free. What it means is, and I've been told this anecdotally by five or six different people, battlefield executions are taking place. Well, if they can't prove they're Taliban, bam. If we don't do it ourselves, we turn them over to the nearby Afghan troops and by the time we walk three feet the bullets are flying. And that's going on now.

Omar Barghouti in Rome

Shmuel Sermoneta-Gertel
(Shmuel is a contributor to Mnodoweiss, occasionally as an author and regularly as a commentator. He's an Israeli anti-Zionist and lives in Italy.)
Last night I went to hear Omar Barghouti at an event titled “Palestine today. Nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation: academic and cultural boycott,” organised by the Roman network for solidarity with the Palestinian people. There were about 80 people there, and the event included the presentation of the book (in Italian) “Planning oppression: The complicity of Israeli academia.”

Barghouti blew me away. He is one of the most articulate, clear-thinking speakers I have ever heard. He presented the goals, importance and strategy of BDS in general, and academic and cultural boycott in particular, and addressed the reasons why Europeans should care about Palestine specifically (direct complicity in Israeli Apartheid), beyond the principle of basic human solidarity. Italy, as it happens, is Israel's second largest research partner, after the US.

Barghouti also discussed some of the main objections to BDS, such as the counterproductivity of boycotting all Israelis. He explained that the boycott is institutional and not individual – not because individuals bear no responsibility for Israeli apartheid, but because the McCarthyist scrutiny of individual Israelis, to separate the “good” from the “bad” is morally repugnant. When asked about those who wish to limit their boycott to the settlements, he replied that such a position is morally, legally and practically untenable. Even if one wishes to ignore the rights of Palestinians in Israel and those of Palestinian refugees, and focus only on the '67 occupation, it is the Israeli government and Israeli society as a whole that is responsible for those actions, not the settlers. Those who oppose the Chinese occupation of Tibet do not limit their actions to Chinese products made in Tibet, but boycott the Chinese government responsible for that occupation. On a practical level, Israel uses every trick in the book (including repackaging in Israel) to ensure that settlement products are virtually indistinguishable from non-settlement products.

Regarding the accusation of anti-Semitism frequently levelled at BDS, he replied that such an accusation is in itself anti-Semitic, inasmuch as it creates an equivalence between all Jews and Israeli policies, implying that Jews are monolothic and that all Jews should be held responsable for Israel's actions. Such generalisations and the idea of collective Jewish responsibility are fundamentally anti-Semitic. He called upon Europeans to stop assuaging their Holocaust guilt by oppressing the victims of the victims of the Holocaust.

Christian Right's Favorite Muslim Convert Exposed as Jihadi Fraud

Liberty Seminary President Ergun Caner claims he traveled the road 'from jihad to Jesus,' but Baptist bloggers say his stories of terrorist training are false.

Palestinian Civil Society Slams OECD Over Israel’s Accession

Occupied Palestine – Palestinian civil society represented by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), a wide coalition of the largest Palestinian mass organizations and trade unions, issued a strong condemnation of OECD’s decision yesterday to welcome Israel as a member of the organization at its ministerial meeting to take place on May 27-28.
"A BNC spokesperson commented: “Officials of OECD member states are perfectly aware that Israel does not comply with any of the objective criteria put forth. Yet, they have decided to single out Israel, elevate it above all these objective criteria, reward it for its defiance of the OECD, not to mention of international law, and make the entire accession process a farce.”
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The sad thing is that one vote only could have denied Israel admission to the OECD but Turkey, a member, voted favorably.

Israel Negotiates Only to Extort Concessions

By Hasan Afif El-Hasan

"Palestinians, let down by the betrayed promises of peace, are at a loss on how to achieve liberation without using violence against the tyranny of a state that has been subjecting them to violence, repression and racism. Since they refuse to buy into the Zionists narrative, the Palestinians view the Zionist enterprise in many forms but none suggests it was a peaceful movement. The Zionist project to colonize Palestine is just another European colonialist expedition whose white settlers used the power imbalance to overwhelm the indigenous population, carried out the ethnic cleansing of North and South America, Africa, New Zealand and Australia, and routinely committed unspeakable crimes."

Fifty-Seven organizations and artists thank Gil Scott-Heron for heeding Palestinian call to boycott Israel

"More than 50 organizations and artists from eight countries have written to legendary political singer and poet Gil Scott-Heron to thank him for his decision to drop Israel from his current tour. The letter, facilitated by Adalah-NY, highlighted the parallels between the South African Apartheid that Scott-Heron crusaded against decades ago and the Israeli system that currently subjugates Palestinians."

But there's more to do:
In the wake of the cancellation, Facebook groups have sprung up calling on Elvis Costello, Joan Armatrading, and Bob Dylan to cancel their planned concerts in Israel. On May 5, PACBI issued its own call to Armatrading.
Jews Sans Frontieres

In cold blood: Two Little Girls: Murder in the Jordan Valley

That April day Emad Fakha had taken three of his four children to help in the fields after school, something they enjoyed, a treat. The children had climbed into the “basket” on the ground at the rear of the tractor, ready to be lifted up. Emad was preparing to start the motor when an Israeli military jeep swerved off the road, at speed, and rammed into the tractor from behind. While Hussein was thrown clear and suffered only a broken leg, the little girls didn’t stand a chance. With the body of one sister draped obscenely over its front bumper, the jeep reversed for five or six metres and then rammed once again into the tractor. What might have been a tragic accident is thus revealed for what it was – a cold-blooded murder.
Via Mondoweiss

Ten Israeli Negotiating Strategies ( the art of cunning and deceit explained)

Israel's ten-part negotiating strategy with the Palestinians is designed to prolong negotiations as long as possible, while creating unavoidable facts on the ground,
Mohsen Saleh
Israel has a negotiating strategy that is designed to prolong the negotiations, allowing more time for the construction of facts on the ground and putting it in a position to impose its will on the "final-status" talks. In fact, the strategy can be broken down into 10 distinct sub-strategies, done in the article that follows.

Overall, the Israeli strategy is based on conflict management, not conflict resolution, and it seeks to weaken its opponents bit by bit until they are convinced that the only option for a solution is the one made available by Israel — hence Israel's prolonged negotiation process.
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A great read! A window into the mind of a swindler nation!

Has Faisal Shahzad, Time Square Fizzler, Started a War?

Justin Raimondo
The Obama administration is determined to link the Times Square Fizzler, Faisal Shahzad, to the Pakistani Taliban, and isn’t about to let logic, reality, or anything remotely related to the facts get in its way. With the complicity of the Obama-stricken media, they just might get away with it, opening the way for expanded military operations in Pakistan, in “retaliation” for an attack that never even happened.

Attorney General Holder did the talking heads circuit this Sunday, no doubt for the explicit purpose of launching this trial balloon, and he had plenty of help from – for example – Jake Tapper, formerly of Salon, the pro-Obama liberal news site, and currently George Stephanopoulos’ replacement on “This Week.” Asked by Tapper what’s new with the Shahzad investigation, Holder replied:

“Well, we’ve now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack. We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it and that he was working at their direction.”
Anti War.com

Hey Elton! Don't go!

HEY ELTON from John Greyson on Vimeo.

Palestinian civil society has called on Elton John to respect their boycott call and cancel his June 17th concert in Tel Aviv. If he does so, he'll be joining Santana and Gil-Scott Heron, who recently cancelled their spring concerts in Israel. This video suggests six reasons why Elton should join the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement.

Gideon Levy: Israel's security measures? Don't make me laugh

Has anyone ever heard of a supporter or benefactor of the most extremist of settlers being deported?
Who says Jewish humor has disappeared from Israel? Who says that even the state's shadowiest organizations don't enjoy occasional moments of levity, in between carrying out assassinations and foiling conspiracies? Israel's ongoing fascistization, isolation, nationalism and militarism don't make for much comic relief. So listen to what Barak Ravid reported in Haaretz on Thursday.

A Spanish clown - it sounds like the start of a joke - lands in Israel. Not just any clown, but Spain's greatest, Ivan Prado. He expected to sail through passport control - a Spanish citizen, even a clown, needs no security authorization to enter the democratic State of Israel - claim his bags of tricks and continue to Ramallah.

Israeli Legislator ( Extreme Right Wing National Union ) Submits A Proposal For A Palestinian State in ....Jordan!

Eldad initially filed his proposal in May of last year and the Knesset agreed to transfer the file to the Knesset’s The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
He demanded that the security committee should discuss the issue but head of the Parliamentarian Committee, Tsahi Hanegbi of the Kadima Party, refused to respond to Eldad’s request.
Israeli paper, Yedioth Aharonoth, reported Sunday that Hanegbi presented his “solution” to the conflict by a two-state solution that suggests establishing a Palestinian State in Jordan and a Jewish state in all parts of the West Bank and Israel.
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Giving someone else's money is ok, but only if you ask for permission first.

ZIONISM IS THE WINNER IN BRITISH ELECTIONS

Steve Bell cartoon
Either way, Zionists win in Britain’s confused election
Stuart Littlewood
"The battle of the Israel stooges in Britain’s general election has ended inconclusively in what’s called a “hung parliament” – i.e. no overall winner.

We can now expect a few days of horse-trading between David “I’m-a-Zionist” Cameron, Gordon “Me-too” Brown to see which stooge can form a credible government.

But regardless of who finally enters Number 10 Downing Street the real winners will be the Zionists.

Either party chief will ensure Israel has a staunch friend who’s faithful to the thuggish regime. Cameron and Brown are both patrons of the Jewish National Fund and have surrounded themselves with lieutenants who are equally supportive of the Zionist entity’s lawless expansion and barbaric conduct. Their loyalty to the British Crown is of course suspect, nevertheless many of them will occupy ministerial or key posts, especially in the Foreign Office and on intelligence, security and defence committees, as was the case under the previous Labour administration."

Guy Denning - painting 'Nakba 2'

Guy Denning is a British artist I discovered last year thanks to V who posted this video in the comment section. A VERY moving piece.
His site here.
And here from Wikipedia:
Guy Denning (born 1965) is an English contemporary artist and painter based in France. He is the founder of the Neomodern group, a member of Stuckism International,[1] and part of the urban art scene in Bristol.[2] He works from observation.[2]

The Likud (Netanyahu) Charter: wiping Palestine off the map

"Observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict often talk about the Hamas Charter, and the earlier PLO Charter, but no one speaks of the intents of the Likud Charter, the Bible of Israel's Likud party now in power to wipe Palestine off the map. But that is precisely what has been happening for the past 60 years.

The Likud Charter

PEACE AND SECURITY chapter of the Likud Party Platform

1. Declaration of a Palestinian State: A unilateral Palestinian declaration of the establishment of a Palestinian state will constitute a fundamental and substantive violation of the agreements with the State of Israel and the scuttling of the Oslo and Wye accords. The government will adopt immediate stringent measures in the event of such a declaration.

2. Settlements: The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria [West Bank] and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.

3. The Permanent Status: The overall objectives for the final status with the Palestinians are: to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of a stable, sustainable agreement and replace confrontation with cooperation and good neighborliness, while safeguarding Israel's vital interests as a secure and prosperous Zionist and Jewish state.

4. Self-Rule: The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan River. The Palestinians can run their lives freely in the framework of self-rule, but not as an independent and sovereign state. Thus, for example, in matters of foreign affairs, security, immigration and ecology, their activity shall be limited in accordance with imperatives of Israel's existence, security and national needs.

4. Jerusalem: Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem, including the plan to divide the city.

5. The Jordan River as a Permanent Border: The Jordan Valley and the territories that dominate it shall be under Israeli sovereignty. The Jordan River will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel. The Kingdom of Jordan is a desirable partner in the permanent status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians in matters that will be agreed upon.

6. Security Areas: The government succeeded in significantly reducing the extent of territory that the Palestinians expected to receive in the interim arrangement.
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But I'm telling you! Hamas' charter is the problem!

Foreign Ministry considering stopping lectures in US and UK because of heckling

"Foreign Ministry officials are considering stopping the lectures by senior figures around the world, particularly in Britain. The reason: The outspoken verbal attacks by students and pro-Palestinian activists, which render them ineffective. The attacks peaked last week, when demonstrators assaulted the Israeli deputy ambassador to Britain at the end of a lecture she gave at the University of Manchester."
(Maariv via Coteret)

British soldiers beating Iraqi kids

After a small protest in which Iraqi youth were throwing rocks at UK soldiers in riot gear, the soldiers are videotaped beating the Iraq youth behind a wall with batons and fists.

Vietnam, 35 years ago

Last Friday, April 30th, was the 35th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, and last Tuesday, May 4th, was the 40th anniversary of the shooting of protesting students at Kent State University. The Vietnam War and America's involvement in it affected the lives of millions for well over a decade, exacting a massive human cost with millions of deaths and countless injuries - both physical and mental - that plague many of those involved to this day. United States military involvement and troop strength grew rapidly after 1964 - at its highest level in 1968, with over 500,000 troops on the ground. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. now bears the engraved names of 58,267 of those troops. It's nearly impossible to encapsulate an event of such scale in a handful of photographs, but here, 35 years after the end of the conflict, is my attempt.
More photos (47) here
The Bigger Picture (Boston.com)

Israel refuses U.N. proposal for a M.E free of Atomic Weapons: US will reassess its 40-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward Israeli nukes

Israel won't move on U.N. call for nuclear-free zone
"Israel has no plan to review its nuclear policies, a government official said on Friday, playing down efforts by world powers at a U.N. non-proliferation conference to promote a Middle East free of atomic arms.

Hoping to win Arab backing for sanctions against Iran, the United States and other permanent U.N. Security Council members on Wednesday called for ways to be found to implement a 1995 initiative that would guarantee nuclear disarmament in a region where Israel is widely assumed to have the only such weapons.

The declaration followed campaigning by Egypt to focus attention, during this month's nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference, on non-signatory Israel, which has set peace with all its neighbors as a precondition for joining the pact.

Boston Science Museum promotion of Israeli technology is angrily disrupted

Boston Activists Disrupt Israeli Propaganda Event at the Museum of Science

Boston, MA, May 3, 2010 Local activists protested the so-called Israeli Innovation Weekend (IIW) at the Museum of Science in Boston through multiple, disparate actions on Sunday. IIWs sponsors, including the Consulate General of Israel to New England, were left flummoxed by the activists efforts and largely unable to prevent their successful, multi-pronged disruption of the event.

Protesters targeted IIW because it was part of a state-sponsored campaign to greenwash Israels discriminatory, apartheid regime and atrocious human rights record. IIW was officially sponsored by the Israeli Consulate, which also played a major role in funding and planning the event; nearly half of IIWs steering committee was composed of Consulate staff and the Consulate was one of the top donors.

1001 Inventions and The Library of Secrets - starring Sir Ben Kingsley as Al-Jazari

Three school children visit a dusty library to research the story of 'The Dark Ages'. What they find changes their world view dramatically as ingenious inventors and pioneers of science and culture are vividly brought to life.

Starring Oscar-winning legend Sir Ben Kingsley in the role of The Librarian, this astounding movie provides an eye-opening introduction to the 1001 Inventions initiative and is the centrepiece for the global touring exhibition.
The 1001 Inventions exhibition opened at London's Science Museum on January 21st 2010. Since that time it has become one of the most popular exhibition's that this prestigious venue has ever hosted.
An average of 3,000 visitors a day are visiting the exhibition, and the feedback from the audience has been overwhelmingly positive.
This video gives a brief introduction to the exhibition's current residency. 1001 Inventions will be at the Science Museum in London from 21st January to 30th June 2010 (with a short closure from 25th Feb to 12th March).

1001 Inventions is a global educational initiative that promotes awareness of the scientific and cultural achievements of Muslim civilisation, during the thousand year period from the 7th century onwards, and how those contributions helped build the foundations of our modern world.
Working with the world's leading academics, 1001 Inventions engages with the public through educational media and interactive global exhibitions, in order to highlight the shared cultural and technological inheritance of humanity.
Since it launched in March 2006, 1001 Inventions has successfully educated more than a million people, promoted cross-cultural understanding and strengthened social cohesion.
1001 Inventions was created by the academic Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) with support from the British Government.

My Holocaust education

by Joseph Glatzer for Mondoweiss
I'm writing my Senior Research Paper (at Cal State Northridge) on the Palestinian Right of Return, and my professor suggested I examine the precedents of compensation and repatriation set by the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.
I started investigating the Claims Conference stuff, and I decided to delve deeper into the actual stories. The more I read the more I was horrified.

Horrified that humanity could watch this and do nothing. Horrified by the parallels between Nazi treatment of Jews and Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

And furious at the exploitation of these innocent victims to justify dehumanizing and oppressing other people.

Surprise, surprise! Israeli general 'tried to cover up truth about death of Rachel Corrie'

Israeli war hero accused of suppressing testimony that could reveal what really happened to Gaza activist
By Ben Lynfield-The Independent
Seven years after the American activist Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, evidence has emerged which appears to implicate Israel's Gaza commander at the time, in an attempt to obstruct the official investigation into her death.

The alleged intervention of Major-General Doron Almog, then head of Israel's southern command, is documented in testimony taken by Israeli military police a day after Ms Corrie was killed on March 16, 2003. The hand written affidavit, seen by The Independent, was submitted as evidence during a civil law suit being pursued by the Corrie family against the state of Israel.

Ms Corrie, who was 23 when she died, was critically wounded when a bulldozer buried her with sandy soil near the border between Gaza and Egypt. The American, wearing a fluorescent orange jacket and carrying a megaphone, was among a group of volunteers from the anti-occupation International Solidarity Movement who over a period of three hours on that day had sought to block the demolition by Israel of Palestinian homes.

BBC Science: Neanderthal genes 'survive in us'

Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study.
The finding has surprised many experts, as previous genetic evidence suggested the Neanderthals made little or no contribution to our inheritance.
The result comes from analysis of the Neanderthal genome - the "instruction manual" describing how these ancient humans were put together.
Between 1% and 4% of genomes of people in Eurasia come from Neanderthals.
But the study confirms living humans overwhelmingly trace their ancestry to a small population of Africans who later spread out across the world.
The most widely-accepted theory of modern human origins - known as Out of Africa - holds that the ancestors of living humans (Homo sapiens) originated in Africa some 200,000 years ago.
BBC

Arabian Nights sparks book row in Egypt

A battle over Arabian Nights has emerged in Egypt, with a group of lawyers calling for a ban of the centuries-old story collection and the country's writers blasting the campaign.

A group of Islamist attorneys who call themselves Lawyers without Borders have filed a complaint with Egypt's Prosecutor General over the book, also known as 1,001 Nights.

Calling for the withdrawal of a recently released edition of Arabian Nights and a ban on the classic title altogether, the group described its tales as lewd and said the tales encouraged "vice and sin."

"I was shocked at the offensive phrases it contains," Ayman Abdul Hakim, a member of the group, told TV station Al Arabiya.

The recently released Arabic-language edition, spearheaded by Egypt's state-run agency General Organisation for Cultural Palaces, was "a waste of public money," the group said.

The agency's chair defended the classic, saying that the new edition had been so popular that its first print run had sold out.

"Egyptians are avid readers and they will not be influenced by a bunch of people who take advantage of Islam in order to suppress freedom," COCP chair Ahmed Megahed told Al Arabiya.

And here:
Egyptian anger at Islamist call to ban Arabian Nights
Egyptian writers have condemned a call by a group of Islamic lawyers for the classic book Arabian Nights to be banned because it is "obscene".
(thanks vza)

Settler Leaders Demand Withholding P.A Money For Boycotting Settlement Products

Leaders of the colonist settler movement in the occupied West Bank demanded the Israeli government to withhold all funds meant for the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank for boycotting settlement products and for forbidding the Palestinian workers from working in Jewish settlements.

Katz: “Settlement Construction Will Resume In September”

Israeli Transportation Minister, Yisrael Katz, stated that a full pace of settlement construction and expansion in the occupied West Bank will resume directly after the temporary settlement freeze ends on September 1.

Israeli Tanks And Bulldozers Invaded Southern Gaza Strip Areas

A number of Israeli tanks and bulldozers invaded farm lands close to the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah boarders with Israel.

Former Minister: “Israel Wants to Remove Palestinians From Jerusalem”

Former Jerusalem Affairs Minister at the Palestinian Authority Engineer, Khalid Abu Arafa, stated that Israel aims at removing all Palestinians out of Jerusalem in order to ensure at least a vast Jewish majority.

Abbas: “Indirect Talks Will Discuss Final Status Issues”

Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, stated that proximity talks with Israel will discuss final status issues, including borders and security, and several related issues.

Arabs In 1948 Areas Prepare For Boycott

Several popular movements, civil society institutions and women organizations in the 1948 areas are preparing to officially declare the launch of a boycott campaign targeting all settlement products as a means of economic pressure on Israel.

Biggest Solidarity Convoy To Sail To Gaza In Three Phases

Independent Palestinian Legislator, head of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, Jamal El Khodary, stated that the biggest convoy of solidarity ships aimed at breaking the Israeli siege on Gaza will be sailing on three phases.

Jailed leftist leader comes out in favor of one-state solution

Ahmed Saadat, the jailed Palestinian leader of the leftist People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said in an interview with Reuters news agency Wednesday that the only way to end the Israel-Palestine conflict is through a one-state solution with equal rights for Jews and Palestinians.

Olympia mural uses Corrie tragedy to strengthen bonds of solidarity

"A Tale of Two Cities ~ The Legacy of Rachel Corrie" The Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project from Susan Greene on Vimeo.

This Saturday there will be a celebration in Rachel Corrie's hometown of Olympia, WA marking the completion of the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural. The project has been a collective effort of Olympia locals, as well as over 150 artists, activists and organizations across the US and the West Bank and Gaza. The mural marks the connection between these two communities, and all those working for justice in Israel/Palestine.
Mondoweiss

The Saudis argue about sexual equality

Are women on their way at last?
Many Saudi observers took note earlier this month when one of the kingdom’s best-selling dailies, Al-Riyadh, devoted a long article to exploring how to implement a lifting of the driving ban. One expert, for instance, proposed testing liberalised driving laws in one city at a time. Another suggested that before Saudi women can get licences the public could be conditioned by allowing female foreign residents, including household servants, to drive. This would answer the common complaint, voiced even by conservatives, that the driving ban risks increasing the bigger danger of Saudi women mixing with unrelated men who may not even be Muslims.
The Economist

Rise of Nick Clegg seen as a serious threat to Israel.

(Clegg: “We must stop arming Israel.”)
Jerusalem watches the rise of Nick Clegg
Israel was maintaining a diplomatic silence Tuesday amid reports from the UK that the Liberal-Democrats, a rising force in British politics whose leader has taken highly critical positions on Israel, would seek control of the Foreign Office and several other senior positions if Thursday’s general elections give the party the balance of power in a hung parliament.

Arab states: Israel's nuclear program is destabilizing Mideast

World must strive harder toward a nuclear-free Mideast, Jordan FM says at second day of UN nuclear conference.
Arab countries sought to turn attention Tuesday to Israel as delegates from 189 countries debated how to stem the spread of nuclear weapons.

On the second day of the month-long meeting at the United Nations, Arab countries were reiterating calls for a nuclear-free Middle East with criticism of Israel's unacknowledged nuclear arsenal and failure to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty .
Haaretz

The day the war came home

(The public outrage that followed the shootings helped to accelerate the end of the war)
"Forty years ago, on May 4, 1970 soldiers opened fire on a student anti-war protest on the campus of Kent State University, nestled around the small, sleepy Ohio town of Kent.
The number of dead - four students, two of them simply heading to class - does not compare to the number of American soldiers ultimately killed in Vietnam: some 57,000.

And the death toll cannot begin to compare to the number of Vietnamese civilians who lost their lives: between 700,000 and 2 million, according to estimates."
Al Jazeera

Australian Senator Steve Fielding (Family First Party)

Richard Dawkins to Steve Fielding:"you believe the earth is less than 10.000 years old, and you're a parliamentarian in Australia?"
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I actually felt sorry for the guy.

"Socialism" Not So Negative, "Capitalism" Not So Positive

"“Socialism” is a negative for most Americans, but certainly not all Americans. “Capitalism” is regarded positively by a majority of the public, though it is a thin majority. There are certain segments of the public – notably, young people and Democrats – where both “isms” are rated about equally. And while most Americans have a negative reaction to the word “militia,” the term is viewed more positively by Republican men than most other groups."

Research reveals that people connected to organized religion are more likely to harbor racial prejudice.

Love Thy Neighbor? Not If He’s Different
"....In a new study drawing on nearly a half century of data, a team of researchers report that religious adherents in the United States — especially fundamentalist Christians — are more inclined than agnostics to harbor racist attitudes toward blacks and other minorities."

How the New York Times see the nuclear arms race in the M.E! Iran and Syria are actively building it and poor Israel doesn't have any !

(Click to enlarge)
U.S. Is Pushing to Deter a Mideast Nuclear Race

GOODS ALLOWED INTO GAZA

"Canned meat and tuna, but not canned fruit
Mineral water, but not fruit juice
Sesame paste (tahini) but not jam
Tea and coffee but not chocolate"

Goldstone forced to attend meeting in order to go to his grandson's bar mitzvah

"Renowned South African jurist Richard Goldstone has faced increasing pressure from Zionists in South Africa since publishing a report documenting potential war crimes by both Israeli military forces and Palestinian armed groups during Israel's 2008-9 invasion of Gaza. Most recently, a group of Zionists tried to prevent him from going to his own grandson's bar mitzvah, and only allowed him to attend by forcing him to attend a meeting with them."

Under Police Protection; Settlers Occupy Home In Beit Safafa after forcing a family out

Enjoying Israeli police protection, a group of fundamentalist settlers occupied a Palestinian home in Beit Safafa town, in East Jerusalem, and raised Israeli flags on top of it “to declare their victory”.

Settlers Attack Funeral of Rabbi Moshe Hirsch

A group of fundamentalist Jewish settlers, including members of the Kach terrorist movement outlawed by Israel itself, attacked the funeral of Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, head of the Neturei Karta Jewish group that denounces Zionism and refuses to recognize the existence of Israel.

Israeli outrage at PA boycott of Israeli products

Israel has threatened to prevent any goods into its ports, and to withhold transferring tax money to the Palestinian Authority if the latter continues to call for the boycott of Israeli settlement products.
The Israeli Knesset discussed the suggestion and said Israel may impose fines on the Palestinian Authority to make up for the loss, Israeli companies will suffer due to the boycott.

The Palestinian Authority has started few months ago a call to boycott the products of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, however, recently, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, drafted a law to prohibit settlement products.

ISHR: “11 Palestinians Killed, 285 Kidnapped In April"

The International Solidarity for Human Rights Foundation (ISHR) issued a report on Monday revealing that Israeli soldiers killed in April eleven Palestinians, including two children, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Six were killed in the West Bank and five in the Gaza Strip.
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I know all this is just too depressing but I wish I could make the news!

Soldiers Level (Another) Mosque Near Rafah

Israeli soldiers invaded on Tuesday at dawn an area in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, leveled the Al Dahniyya mosque and uprooted farmlands
Local sources reported that the mosque was leveled to the ground after several armored military vehicles and bulldozers invaded Rafah.

Also in Rafah, soldiers uprooted farmlands near the Yasser Arafat Airport east of Rafah.

Several military bulldozers and armored vehicles bulldozed farmlands and opened fire at random in Al Dahniyya area.

Settlers Torch Mosque South Of Nablus

"A group of fundamentalist settlers torched the main mosque of the Al Lubban Al Sharqiyya village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus."

"...Daraghma added that the mosque is located in the center of the village which is surrounded by three settlements built on %30 of lands stolen from the residents. The village, 22 kilometers south of Nablus, is inhibited by 3000 residents.

He stated that the village is subject to frequent attacks carried out by the settlers who previously set ablaze farmlands and uprooted trees."
This is the third mosque to be torched by the settlers this year as the settlers torched a mosque in Yasuf village near Salfit and another mosque in Huwwara town, near Nablus.

Israeli settlers release wild pigs on Palestinian farmland in Salfit

"In a move that has become common practice among Israeli settlers, a herd of wild pigs that was captured inside Israel was recently released in the Salfit district, leading to large-scale destruction of Palestinian crops."

Palestinians test out Gandhi-style protest

"Non-violence is stronger than militant action... Once people want something, nothing can stop them"
Beit Jala is one of a growing number of Palestinian villages holding regular protests against Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

Many end with Palestinian youths throwing stones and Israeli troops firing tear gas and sometimes rubber-coated bullets.
But organisers in Beit Jala, such as Ahmad Lazza of the Holy Land Trust who trains protesters in non-violent tactics, are determined to keep things peaceful.
This is partly out of personal belief, and partly about avoiding escalation with Israeli soldiers.

"You don't want him to feel threatened, because it is a very good excuse for him to shoot you," he says.

Details of Gaza blockade revealed in court case

"BBC News has seen documents, submitted to an Israeli Court, which give more detail than ever before about how and why Israel maintains its Gaza blockade.
In one document, Israel describes the import curbs as "a central pillar in the armed conflict with Hamas".
It also confirms estimates were made of how many calories Gazans need, but says these were not used for policy-making.
Israel says the blockade is to pressure Hamas, which does not recognise Israel and backs attacks on its citizens.
Three years ago, after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power, Israel and Egypt tightened their closure of Gaza's borders, leaving the territory's 1.5 million inhabitants facing acute shortages.
But Israel has never published a list of banned items, saying it approves requests on a case-by-case basis.
Items allowed have changed over time, which has left humanitarian organisations and commercial importers constantly attempting to guess what will be approved."
BBC

The Palestine-Mexico border

by Jimmy Johnson
January's revelations about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assisting with the design and installation of yet another border wall around Palestine, this one placed under the ground, is just the latest development in a series of relationships between: North American neoliberalism, U.S. domestic and foreign drug policy, structural anti-latino racism in the U.S., the Egyptian government, Mexico's ruling elite and Israel's military occupation of Palestine. To find connections between various international interests is not surprising but the links between, for example, Mexican classism and President Mubarak's aversion to democracy are perhaps less known. How the occupation forces action from one and provides tools for the other is a connection worth exploring as is the potential for joint struggle between individuals and communities focusing on seemingly disparate issues amidst broader struggles for justice.
Mondoweiss

Will Obama adopt a dangerously simplistic peace plan?

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada.

A new conventional wisdom is rapidly taking shape that the United States can resolve the 130-year-old conflict in Palestine by advancing its own peace plan. Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and former US Congressman Stephen Solarz outlined such a plan in The Washington Post recently, and argued that President Obama could boost its prospects with a "bold gesture" -- a trip, to Jerusalem and Ramallah in the company of Arab and other leaders to unveil it ("To achieve Mideast peace, Obama must make a bold Mideast trip," 11 April 2010).

Strong supporters of Israel have pushed back that "imposing peace" would not work, but few Palestinian voices have been heard. Indeed, from a Palestinian perspective, this idea is dangerously simplistic, and more likely to deepen festering injustices and fuel, rather than resolve conflict.

The "comprehensive solution" Brzezinski and Solarz propose is nothing of the kind because the conflict cannot be reduced to a mere border dispute between Israel and a putative Palestinian state. They propose for example "a territorial settlement based on the 1967 borders, with mutual and equal adjustments to allow the incorporation of the largest West Bank settlements into Israel."

The French spy, the CIA, and the Syrian reactor

"The pictures were crystal clear: A clandestine Syrian nuclear facility, bombed by Israeli jets, lay in ruins on the edge of the desert, 90 miles south of Damascus.

Most important, the photos showed that the core of the reactor, built with secret North Korean help, had been totally destroyed.

But at CIA headquarters, Deputy Director Stephen R. Kappes was chafing -- at what he didn’t have, according to two former intelligence officials, recounting the tale only on condition of anonymity because the incident remains sensitive.

Recently returned from a self-imposed, two-year exile, the career spy wanted somebody to eyeball that wreckage -- get in close, point a camera at it, maybe even take a radiation reading."

Bolivia nationalises energy firms

Bolivia has nationalised at least four power companies, expanding state control over the Latin American nation's key industries.

Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, signed a decree authorising the nationalisation at the offices of one of the companies in the city of Cochabamba on Saturday, hours after police had moved in to secure them.

France admits killing Afghan kids

The French army has admitted killing four children with a missile strike in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan.

"This happened on April 6, but it only came out today because, according to French military spokesman, it took that long to carry out the investigation," Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from Kabul, said on Thursday.

The children died when French soldiers fired a missile from a military base in Kapisa province after it came under attack from the Taliban.
Al Jazeera

Why Does Tariq Ramadan Cause Such A Stir?

By Eleanor Goldberg
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS) With an open collared baby blue shirt and Dolce & Gabbana jacket( Ha ha! Do some journalists just love to make up such silly stuff. It makes them sound like they know. Unless he had a tag on the sleeve somewhere! A remote possibility but I doubt it) hugging his slim frame, Tariq Ramadan appears the epitome of Western sophistication.
But from 2004 until just a few months ago, the Department of Homeland Security viewed him with suspicion.
Ramadan, a 46-year-old Oxford University professor and a golden child of American academia, was banned from the U.S. for six years because of alleged ties to a Muslim charity that supported the militant group Hamas.
"A silly decision from the Bush administration," as Ramadan prefers to put it now.
Ramadan, the author of more than 20 books on Islam and the grandson of the founder of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, is widely considered a go-to scholar on all things Islam. He's made enemies on both sides with his criticisms of both U.S. foreign policy and Islamic fundamentalism.
The Huffington Post

Carl Sagan discusses religion in his last interview

The mystery of Abydos hieroglyfs, Egypt

What the heck is that? Helicopters, submarines, aircrafts of sorts, all engraved 3000 years ago! I have to admit that today was the first time I see this sort of thing. I was browsing Sabbah's blog, one of the best on ME issues out there, and stumbled on this post which even though did not convince me entirely, still intrigued me somehow. Any ideas?

Sculpture by Sergio Merino offends and 'hurts' poor little Israel

A controversial art piece on exhibition at the Madrid art fair, was condemned by the Israeli Embassy in Madrid as being "offensive to Judaism."

"The hurtful message this piece conveys doesn't hurt less because it is displayed under the veil of art," the Israeli embassy wrote in a letter to the organizers of ARCO art fair, one of the world's top contemporary art fairs.

The Israeli embassy in Madrid is "hurt" and "offended!" How touching… It's okay for Israelis to kill everyday, to spit on Christians and Muslims, to kidnap people and harvest their organs, to arrest and jail children, to use illegal weapons, to impose an illegal siege on a million and a half people in Gaza, to occupy Palestine, Syria and Lebanon and to threaten more war and occupation everyday.. It's okay for Israel to ignore International Law, UN resolutions, the International Court of Justice, the NPT and on and on… but its not okay for a piece of art to be critical of "poor little Israel"… After 62 years of lies, Israel can no longer hide its true ugly colors from the world… even with its total control of mainstream media…

Right of return not negotiable

By Ahmed Moor, my favorite writer on the I/P issue (Only 23 years old!)
Putting aside the racial justification that underpins the existence of the Jewish state for a moment, it's worth examining the reasons any two-state solution cannot work today. First, as previously noted, Palestinians will not relinquish the right of return. Mahmoud Abbas, who cannot claim any electoral or moral legitimacy, is hardly in a position to negotiate the right away. Second, there are approximately 500,000 Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and no one is capable of removing them from their homes. One can talk about land swaps, but the reality is that the Israeli state has done a thorough job of colonizing large swaths of land around Jerusalem and deep into the West Bank, effectively cutting it in two. Territorial contiguity is enormously important when engineering a state and it doesn't appear likely here. Third, the Holy Land is relatively arid. Much of the water Israelis consume comes from the coastal and mountain aquifers, both of which lie under Palestinian land. Notwithstanding international law and the prevailing sentiment of much of the world, Israel simply will not relinquish control of such strategic freshwater reserves.

Norman Finkelstein: Gaza's calm determination

The Electronic Intifada
"To preserve my sense of purpose, and keep the Palestine struggle from becoming a lifeless abstraction, I need periodically to recharge my moral batteries by reconnecting with the actual people living under occupation and by witnessing firsthand the unfolding tragedy. From each trip I invariably carry away a handful of stark images that I fix in my mind's eye to dispel the occasional hesitations about staying the course. When the memories begin to fade I know it is time to return."

Even Israel's biggest lovers are growing impatient

In the same vein of the post below, from Haaretz:
Yossi Sarid
"Thankfully, we have lived long enough. For 2,000 years - or at least 43 - we expected to hear this voice from the heights, but it tarried. No one can accuse the 3,000 Jewish intellectuals who signed a letter to be presented to the European Parliament Sunday calling on Israel to cease construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem of being Israel-haters. No one can depict French Jewish philosophers Bernard-Henri Levy or Alain Finkielkraut as self-hating Jews.

These are people who seize every opportunity to defend Israel publicly and remain faithful to it. Even during Operation Cast Lead and after the Goldstone report they were on Israel's side. The State of Israel is the apple of their eye in good times, and especially in bad."

3,000 European Jewish intellectuals urge end to Israeli settlements

Haaretz
A new leftist European Jewish group, JCall, has written a letter to be delivered Sunday to the European Parliament calling for a cessation of what it calls systematic support for Israeli government decisions.

JCall, which describes itself as "the European J Street" and is to be officially launched Sunday with the presentation of the letter, has raised a storm with its call to stop construction in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem.

The letter is signed by some 3,000 Jewish intellectuals, among them philosophers( Ahem!) Bernard Henri-Levy and Alain Finkielkraut, considered some of Israel's strongest defenders among French intellectuals. Signatories also include Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the student protests in the 1960s and now a member of the European Parliament, as well as other Jewish members of the European Parliament.
The letter calls occupation and settlements "morally and politically wrong," noting that they "feed the unacceptable delegitimization process that Israel currently faces abroad."
According to Prof. Zeev Sternhell, "The French Jewish left has decided that the official institutions do not represent most French Jews, and following the example of J Street, have decided that the time has come to do the same thing in Europe." He supports the letter but hasn't signed it.
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Well, if BHL and Finkielkraut are joining in it's because it's becoming increasingly hard for them to support Israel and safeguard the integrity of their shop front, human rights, at the same time.

U.K. comedian Frankie Boyle slams BBC over apology for anti-Israel skit

"The BBC's apology for an anti-Israel comedy skit is cowardly, Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle said in an open letter published in British media outlets Saturday, saying he was right to criticize Israel for being an "aggressive terrorist state."

Earlier this week, the BBC's Trust issued a public apology for Boyle's comedy bit, originally aired on the station's Political Animal radio show in June 2008, and in which the comedian made remarks such as: "I've been studying Israeli Army Martial Arts. I now know 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back."

Boyle had also said in his 2008 comedy bit that, while "people think that the Middle East is very complex but I have an analogy that sums it up quite well."
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"If you imagine that Palestine is a big cake, well... that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew," Boyle said.

In his letter published Saturday, Boyle said that he first thought "the show's producers will have thought that Israel, an aggressive, terrorist state with a nuclear arsenal was an appropriate target for satire," adding that the BBC's recent apology proved him wrong.

"If you imagine that a state busily going about the destruction of an entire people is fair game, you are mistaken. Israel is out of bounds," Boyle said.
"

"The Future of Palestine: Righteous Jews vs. the New Afrikaners" with Professor John Mearsheimer

"The story I will tell is straightforward. Contrary to the wishes of the Obama administration and most Americans – to include many American Jews – Israel is not going to allow the Palestinians to have a viable state of their own in Gaza and the West Bank. Regrettably, the two-state solution is now a fantasy. Instead, those territories will be incorporated into a “Greater Israel,” which will be an apartheid state bearing a marked resemblance to white-ruled South Africa. Nevertheless, a Jewish apartheid state is not politically viable over the long term. In the end, it will become a democratic bi-national state, whose politics will be dominated by its Palestinian citizens. In other words, it will cease being a Jewish state, which will mean the end of the Zionist dream.

Let me explain how I reached these conclusions.

Given present circumstances there are four possible futures for Palestine.

The outcome that gets the most attention these days is the two-state solution, which was described in broad outline by President Clinton in late December 2000. It would obviously involve creating a Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel. To be viable, that Palestine state would have to control 95 percent or more of the West Bank and all of Gaza. There would also have to be territorial swaps to compensate the Palestinians for those small pieces of West Bank territory that Israel got to keep in the final agreement. East Jerusalem would be the capital of the new Palestinian state. The Clinton Parameters envisioned certain restrictions on the new state’s military capabilities, but it would control the water beneath it, the air space above it, and its own borders – to include the Jordan River Valley."