NewsTrust - Gaza - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Live Update From Jewish Holocaust Survivor on U.S. Ship in Gaza Flotilla

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 30 (Interview) - Democracy Now! producer Aaron Mate and 86-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein are on the U.S. ship, “The Audacity of Hope,” as it sits moored in an Athens port, draped in American flags, waiting to set sail for Gaza, joining nine other ships in a humanitarian flotilla to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Palestine. Asked why she is attempting to go to Gaza, Epstein says, “If I can go anywhere in the world, why not to Gaza? Because the Israelis do not want me to go there? That is not a good reason for me not to go.”

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It Takes People On the Outside: Prestigious Author Alice Walker to Confront Israeli Naval Blockade of Gaza on U.S. Aid Ship

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jun. 28 (Interview) - Israel continues to threaten a group of international activists planning to sail to Gaza this week with humanitarian aid. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said participants in the 10-boat flotilla are seeking "confrontation and blood." Last year, Israeli forces killed nine people aboard the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara. Meanwhile, activists say one of the 10 boats scheduled to sail to Gaza has been sabotaged in a Greek port. Saboteurs reportedly cut off the propeller shaft of a ship shared by Swedish, Norwegian and Greek activists. Organizers say the boat will be repaired in time to sail to Gaza. One of the other ships that will try to reach Gaza from Greece is the "Audacity of Hope." It’s set to carry up to 50 U.S. citizens carrying letters to Gaza residents. One of the ship’s passengers is the acclaimed author, poet and activist Alice Walker.

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U.N. Gaza Inquiry Panelist Desmond Travers Challenges Goldstone's Recantation of Key Finding

Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 20 (Interview) - Last month Judge Richard Goldstone, the chair of the United Nations' inquiry into the Israel’s 2008-2009 assault on the Gaza Strip, retracted his key finding that Israel deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians in its three-week assault. Israel, with backing of the United States, seized on Goldstone's comments and called for the United Nations to withdraw the report. Goldstone came under criticism from his co-panelists who co-authored the original report. We speak to one of those panelists, Col. Desmond Traver, a retired Irish soldier and peace-keeper.

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US-Israeli Strategy Crashes in Egypt

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Gareth Porter - Feb. 02 (Opinion) - The uprising in Egypt marks an end to a long U.S.-Israeli strategy of imposing "order" on the Middle East

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Smell Something Rotten?: 2010 P.U.-litzer Prizes recognize the worst of U.S. journalism

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

FAIR - Dec. 30 (Opinion) - At the end of every year FAIR rounds up some of the stinkiest examples of corporate media malfeasance. This year brought no shortage of contenders; indeed, the hardest part of the P.U.-litzers is narrowing down the list.

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Obama: Map Borders for Mideast Peace

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - Dec. 16 - The great brass ring of Barack Obama’s foreign policy — an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement — seems to be rapidly slipping from his grasp. His demand for a moratorium on West Bank settlement expansion is now dead and buried, with scarcely an obituary in the U.S. mass media to mark its passing. There’s a general consensus in [...] ...

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Noam Chomsky: WikiLeaks Cables Reveal "Profound Hatred for Democracy on the Part of Our Political Leadership"

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!) - Nov. 30 - In a national broadcast exclusive interview, we speak with world-renowned political dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky about the release of more than 250,000 secret U.S. State Department cables by WikiLeaks. In 1971, Chomsky helped government whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg release the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret internal U.S. account of the Vietnam War. Commenting on the revelations that several Arab leaders are urging the United States to attack Iran, Chomsky says, "[latest polls show] Arab opinion holds that the major threat in the region is Israel, that's 80 percent; the second threat is the United States, that's 77 percent. Iran is listed as a threat by 10 percent," Chomsky says. "This may not be reported in the newspapers, but it's certainly familiar to the Israeli and U.S. governments and the ambassadors. What this reveals is the profound hatred for democracy on the part of our political leadership."

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A “Progressive Hero?” Time to Think Outside of the Boxer

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Stephen Zunes - Oct. 20 (Opinion) - The failure of progressives to make major inroads in electoral politics in the United States today could not be better illustrated than a recent decision by Democracy for America, a million-member political action committee founded by former Vermont governor Howard Dean which claims leadership in the support for progressive candidates for office, regarding a veteran U.S. senator facing re-election in November.

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"Big Shopping Malls" and "No Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza"

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:36:29 -0700

PR Watch - By Steve Horn - Jul. 28 (Advocacy) - Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel hasbara-extraordinaire, Felix Frankfurter, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and Alan Dershowitz, are both on the record as saying that "there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza." They are not outliers in holding that opinion. Indeed, former neo-conservative Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the current Foreign Minister of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, as well as Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev, are all on the record sharing these sentiments. The sentiments, though, fly in the face of the reality that is the daily peril taking place in the Gaza Strip. Indeed, they are but a pipe dream.

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Jamal Dajani: How Gilad Shalit Will Save Netanyahu

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Jul. 02 (Opinion) - Mark my words, Gilad Shalit is coming home. He will soon be set free but not because of German mediations or the thousands of appeals made by his parents and their supporters. He's coming home because Bibi needs Gilad more than Gilad needs him. In a

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US Stands, and Lies, With Israel

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Ira Chernus - Jun. 19 (Opinion) - "We stand by Israel," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley declared, as he voiced the State Department?s support for Israel?s internal investigation of the attack on the flotilla bound for Gaza. Israel "has the institutions and certainly the capability to conduct a credible, impartial and transparent investigation," Crowley said. Over at the White House they stand by Israel, too. Though the White House press release forgot to use that exact phrase, read ...

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The Incendiary Danger of Unchecked Power: Bibi as Bullyboy

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Bernard Weiner - Jun. 14 (Opinion) - Take a large dose of hubris, combine it with Lord Acton's famous dictum ("power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely"), and you emerge with an explosive, reckless abuse of authority on a number of fronts.

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Schumer Says It ‘Makes Sense’ To ‘Strangle [Gaza] Economically’ Until It Votes The Way Israel Wants

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Think Progress - By Zaid Jilani - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - This past Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) delivered a wide-ranging speech at an Orthodox Union event in Washington, D.C. The senator’s lecture touched on areas such as Iran’s nuclear program, the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and several domestic policy issues. During one point of his speech, Schumer turned his attention to the situation in Gaza. He told the [...]

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Generation Why: Young American Jews and Israeli Exceptionalism

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Daniel Cluchey - Jun. 09 (Opinion) - For those who lived through the Yom Kippur War, for whom the very survival of the Jewish people has been at times a terrifying uncertainty, love means never having to say you're sorry...For those of us who came of age in a world where the Holocaust was a tragedy of the past...Israel is a sacred and beloved state, but not one that we tend to connect viscerally to our own sense of survival.

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American Media Hide the Evidence: Did Israeli Troops Execute or Murder the Mavi Marmara Victims?

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Dave Lindorff, - Jun. 07 (Opinion) - You want to know why we need independent journalism, and why those of you who are reading this article need to support the publication in which you are reading it and the publication in which it originally appeared? Because if you rely for your news on the US corporate media, whether ad-supported or underwriter-supported, you won’t learn that Furkan Dogan, the 19-year-old American citizen slain by Israeli commandos in the raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla May 31, was shot in the back and in the back of the head, as well as multiple times in the face.

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Israel: Flotilla Videos Gone Viral

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Global Voices - By Maya Norton - Jun. 05 (Opinion) - An Israeli video called "Flotilla Choir: We Con the World" has gone viral on Facebook in the last 24 hours. While it shows no compunction about the violence involved in the flotilla incident, it aggressively illustrates the widely held Israeli belief that Hamas is responsible for the poor state of well-being of the people of Gaza.

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Kucinich Circulating Letter to Colleagues Regarding Mavi Marmara Incident

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Kucinich.us - By Dennis Kucinich - Jun. 04 (Advocacy) - At least nine were killed in the incident aboard the Mavi Marmara. Hundreds of civilians were taken into custody and goods were confiscated. Since the United States considers Israel our most important ally in the region, whose survival is a of primary concern, it is incumbent upon the Commander in Chief to call Israel to an accounting for its conduct in planning and executing the deadly military attack in international waters upon a peaceful flotilla carrying citizens from over 50 countries.

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Gaza Boat Activists Deny Israeli Story

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Dennis Bernstein, Jesse Strauss - Jun. 04 (Opinion) - With a bloody raid on the “Freedom Flotilla,” Israel has demonstrated, once again, its willingness to kill innocents in order to sustain its punishing blockade on the Gaza strip, even when doing so raises more and more questions about nuclear-armed Israel’s national sanity.

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Operation Make The World Hate Us

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Leon Wieseltier - Jun. 04 (Opinion) - Israel does not need enemies: it has itself. Or more precisely: it has its government. The Netanyahu-Barak government has somehow found a way to lose the moral high ground, the all-important war for symbols and meanings, to Hamas. That is quite an accomplishment. Operation Make the World Hate Us, it might have been called.

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Israel: Hasbara, Lies, and Videotape

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:15:27 -0700

Huffington Post - Jun. 04 (Opinion) - As thousands of outraged demonstrators poured into the streets of Ankara and several capitals across the globe in the aftermath of Israel's bloody attack on an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip early Monday, an Israeli sergeant stood in front of

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Noam Chomsky on Israel and the Gaza Flotilla Attack: "Sheer Criminal Aggression, with no Credible Pretext"

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Sarah Macaraeg, Noam Chomsky - Jun. 02 (Opinion) - Professor Noam Chomsky, renowned foreign policy analyst and bestselling author of Hegemony and Survival and most recently of Hopes and Prospects (Haymarket Books) offered the following statement to Egypt's Al-Ahram regarding Israel's justification for it's attack on humanitarian aid boats headed for Gaza and the broader context regarding the economic blockade which the activists aboard the ships were attempting to break.

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Israel's Indefensible Behavior

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Beast - By Peter Beinart - Jun. 01 (Opinion) - Don’t blame the commandos for the flotilla disaster. Blame Israel’s leaders, who enforce the cruel and corrupt Gaza embargo, and their supporters in America.

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Obama's Timidity and Deaths at Sea

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 07:13:49 -0700

Consortium News - By Ray McGovern - Jun. 01 (Opinion) - seldom has an act of aggression been so well advertised in advance. Israel had made clear that it would use force to prevent the ships from reaching Gaza and heard no stern protest from President Obama, who apparently could not overcome his fear of Israel’s legendary political clout. Earlier this year, Obama did criticize Israel’s continued settlement of Palestinian areas and Netanyahu’s resistance to hold meaningful peace talks, but the President has failed to follow up his words with firm action or resolve.

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Freedom Flotilla to Hold Memorial Service for US Sailors Slain by Israel in 1967

Mon, 31 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

gazafreedommarch.org - May. 31 (Press Release) - Freedom Flotilla to Hold Memorial Service for US Sailors Slain by Israel in 1967 U.S.S. Liberty Survivor Joe Meadors to Honor Slain Shipmates On Sunday, May 30, 2010, participants in the international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip will hold a memorial service at sea to commemorate the 34 Americans killed and 173 injured in Israel's 1967 attack on the U.S.S. Liberty. Joe Meadors, a signalman on the Navy surveillance ship 43 years ago and a member of the Free Palestine Movement delegation to the flotilla, will lead the ceremony in honor of his crewmates. The service will be held aboard the Sfendoni, a ship contributed to the Freedom Flotilla by the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza. It is scheduled to be held in international waters about 30 miles off the coast of Gaza, near the site of the deadly incident.

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Divesting From Injustice

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Desmond Tutu - Apr. 13 (Opinion) - Students are helping to pave a path to a Middle East peace, and I heartily endorse their divestment vote, encourage them to stand firm on the side of what is right, and urge others to follow their lead.

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