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

Noam Chomsky: Palestinian Hunger Strike A Protest Against "Violations of Elementary Human Rights"

Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky - May. 14 (Interview) - A tentative deal has reportedly been reached to end a landmark action that's seen an estimated 2,000 jailed Palestinians go without food to pressure Israeli prison authorities to end the use of solitary confinement and ease a wide range of restrictions. "The hunger strikes are a protest against violations of the elementary human rights," Chomsky says.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Rick Steves: Reflections on Israel and Palestine

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Rick Steves - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - I've been duped. Do you know the frustration you feel when you believed in something strongly and then you realize that the information that made you believe was from a source with an agenda to deceive? I just watched a powerful and courageous documentar

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Palestine: Gaza Under Attack - Again

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Global Voices - By Yasmeen El Khoudary - Mar. 11 (Opinion) - Throughout the night of March 9 and into the morning of March 10, Israeli warplanes attacked targets across the Gaza Strip, with a death toll of at least 12, and 20 injured.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

U.S. Pulls All Funding for UNESCO After Sweeping Vote to Support Palestinian Membership

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 01 (Interview) - In an emotional—and largely symbolic—move, the United Nations cultural organization known as UNESCO overwhelmingly voted to grant membership to the Palestinians, despite opposition from the United States and Israel. Now the United States says it will cancel a $60 million payment due in November to the U.N. body. Membership dues paid by the U.S. account for about a fifth of UNESCO's annual budget. The U.S. is also threatening to veto any Palestinian effort to be recognized by the U.N. Security Council as an independent state. "By going to UNESCO, this was a way both of gauging where the public opinion is among the various governments and, more importantly, symbolically for the world, showing that this is a moment of recognition that the 20-year-old U.S.-controlled so-called 'peace process' simply hasn't worked," said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies. [includes rush transcript]

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Noam Chomsky on Israel-Palestine Prisoner Exchange, U.S. Assassination Campaign in Yemen

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Noam Chomsky - Oct. 18 (Speech) - MIT Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and political dissident, spoke Monday night at Barnard College in New York City about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, just hours before Israel and Hamas completed a historic prisoner exchange. "I think [Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit] should have been released a long time ago. But there’s something missing from this whole story. There’s no pictures of Palestinian women, and no discussion, in fact, in the story of—what about the Palestinian prisoners being released?

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

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.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Cheering Netanyahu's Intransigence

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Op Ed News - By Robert Parry - May. 26 (Opinion) - Congress, with repeated standing ovations, showed its love for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but the valentine may have unintended consequences by stirring dangerous passions of Likud's rejectionist wing, which is now weighing the risks of transforming Israel into an overtly apartheid state. These hardliners might well interpret the congressional obsequiousness as signaling that Israel still has a free hand to do whatever it wants, even if that means defying President Barack Obama's mild pressure for movement toward peace with the Palestinians.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Playwright Tony Kushner Speaks Out on CUNY Controversy, Academic Freedom and Israel

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 10 (Interview) - Tony Kushner appears on Democracy Now! to announce he will accept an honorary degree at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, following a controversy that sparked national attention. Last week, the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York voted to shelve the degree after one member cited Kushner’s critical views of Israeli government policies. But on Monday night, the CUNY board reversed its decision. Kushner says he is still hoping for an apology: "In lieu of an apology, I would accept what is clearly an admission of error of judgment and a lapse of responsibility on the part of the board in defending open exchange and academic freedom."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad: 'An Independent Palestine Is in Israel's Interest'

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Elisabeth Braw - Mar. 23 (Interview) - "On August 26 there will be a Palestinian state, and it will be open to all," says Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in exclusive Metro interview. "It will be a state founded on universal values like respect of others, non-discrimination and religious, gender and ethnic equality."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why Egypt's Naysayers Got It Wrong

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Daily Beast - By Laila Lalami - Feb. 13 (Opinion) - Right up until the end, political theorists the world over insisted that what happened in Tunisia couldn't—or shouldn't—happen in Egypt. Laila Lalami on why Westerners often underestimate the Arab world. Plus, full coverage of Egypt’s uprising. It was nearly 20 years ago that Samuel Huntington put forth the idea that major sources of world conflict in the aftermath of the Cold War would be cultural. Certain civilizations could coexist peacefully with one another, he argued, but others were bound to come into conflict because their inherent values and belief systems were polar opposites. The contrast between "the West" and "Islam" provided the clearest illustration of his argument and, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it gained an even wider following. Huntington's theory has so pervaded public discourse that when people speak of his "Clash of Civilizations," they usually mean the inevitable clash between the West and Islam.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

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

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

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 [...] ...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

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."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

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.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

James Zogby: Unhelpful Provocations

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By James Zogby - Oct. 16 - In "Arab Voices" I describe Lebanon as "a tinderbox, with too many groups still playing with matches". Iranian President Ahmadinejad's visit to that dear but...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Opinion: No Mideast peace? Blame the American media

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Tom Fenton - Sep. 03 (Editorial) - The Middle East peace process has always been a fantasyland – a garden of illusions sustained by politicians and myths that by and large the American media have been too timid, too uninformed or too biased to question.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Direct Talks: Five Myths

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jamal Dajani - Aug. 27 (Opinion) - Direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis are scheduled to commence in Washington on September 2, a decade after the last real final-status talks, and nearly two years after the last direct talks. Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu will come face to face for dinner and talks in Washington as guests of President Obama after 18 months of shuttle diplomacy and indirect "proximity talks" headed by Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Purpose Of Israel’s Settlements Is To Be Difficult To Remove

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Think Progress - By Matt Duss - Aug. 27 (Opinion) - I had to read Fred Barnes’ new Weekly Standard piece “In Defense of Settlers” a few times to be sure that Fred wasn’t actually putting us on. It appears he isn’t. Things go awry beginning with the very first paragraph, in which Barnes writes, “When direct talks begin next week between Israelis and Palestinians, the fate of Jewish settlers in the West Bank — tens of thousands of them — will be a major issue in the negotiations. But the settlers themselves won’t be part of the discussion.”

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Israel/Palestine and Iran: Linkage Should be Hard Wired by Obama Team

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Note - By Steve Clemons - Aug. 07 (Opinion) - America is not completely out of the global power game. In my view, a combination of brilliant leadership and well orchestrated "strategic leaps" coupled with visionary re-crafting of America's global social contract with other of the world's leading stakeholders could actually restore significant American leverage (and power) in global affairs.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Army uses legal measures to quell demonstrations against the Separation Barrier

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

btselem.org - Aug. 02 (Comment) - In a new position paper, B'Tselem analyses the legal developments in the army's efforts to quell demonstrations in the West Bank. The freedom to participate in demonstrations and processions is a basic right in any democratic regime. It is regarded as a manifestation of human dignity and liberty. The freedom to demonstrate gives citizens the ability to protest actions, decisions and policies of the authorities and protect their basic rights.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

"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.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Right Wing Thought Police - An Analysis

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Lawrence Davidson - Jul. 10 (Opinion) - Lawrence Davidson writes: 'The American right wing is achieving its long-term goal of becoming the nation's thought police. They are realizing this goal through the timeless practices of extremists (be they on the right or the left, religious or secular), which are intimidation, slander and harassment.' Lawrence Davidson, Reader Supported News

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

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 ...

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

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.

NewsTrust Rating: 1.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

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.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer