The Corner Report

The landing of two wooden boats carrying 46 human rights activists in Gaza this past weekend is an important symbolic victory, says Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. This non-violent initiative of the Free Gaza Movement focused attention around the world on the stark reality that the 1.5 million residents of Gaza have endured a punitive siege for more than a year. This siege is a form of collective punishment that constitutes a massive violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

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Ariel Sharon's "Orwellian nightmare"

By Fred Schlomka August 2008

As the eyes of the world are on the Liberty Ships approaching Gaza, a massive segregated road project in the Greater Jerusalem area is quietly approaching completion. Israel is about to unveil the realization of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s dream of Palestinian ‘transportational contiguity’, in lieu of contiguous territory. Route 1, currently shared with Palestinians, connects Jerusalem to the eastern settlement of Ma’ale Adumim (pop. 35,000).

This four-lane highway leads to the Dead Sea and also whisks settlers to Jerusalem in twenty minutes through the ‘E1’ development area.
Since Sharon’s ultimate goal was to remove Palestinian traffic from settler roads, he came up with the ingenious plan to build a separate road network for exclusive Palestinian use, with no connection to the settler roads, only bridges and underpasses.

The crown jewel of this Orwellian nightmare, renamed the ‘Fabric of Life Roads’, is currently being readied for use and will complete the territorial separation between the north and south West Bank. Several new steep and narrow roads snake through the hills south of E1 from the Palestinian enclaves of Azariya (Bethany), Adu Dis and adjacent villages. They all merge into a single two-lane road that dips under Route 1, curving around the northeast edge of Jerusalem. The road will soon be extended to enter Ramallah, completing the entire segregated road network through the E1 area.

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Mary Hughes-Thompson is one of the non-violent international activists who sailed to Gaza from Cyprus on two wooden ships to break Zionist Israel's illegal siege on the 1.5 million Palestinains living there

Monday 25 August 2008

Dear friends,

It was a day of smiles and a day of tears for me here in Gaza City. Another early press conference, followed by a visit to the hospital which has seen most of the carnage created in Gaza by Israeli bombs and rockets. The doctor related some of the difficulties faced by the population of Gaza. That 50 chldren have died because Israel refused to let them enter Israel for treatment. The reason given by Israel? The mothers were under 35 years old and could be terrorists. So the children died. He told us that so far 242 people have died during the siege because of Israel's refusal to allow them to get the treatment they need. And that there have been 300 deliveries at checkpoints, resulting in 69 babies dead.

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By Ernesto Cienfuegos, La Voz de Aztlan

LOS ANGELES - It appear that the Bush Administration may have another "Abu Ghraib Prison" type torture scandal in its hands that it is desperately attempting to cover up. The disturbing human rights case involves a Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University educated Pakistani national that mysteriously disappeared, along with her three children, in Afghanistan in 2003. This past week the seriously injured, bleeding, frail, traumatized and confused Dr. Siddiqui re-appeared in a wheel chair in a New York federal court accused of terrorism and to face charges that she attempted to kill FBI and US soldiers in Afghanistan.

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By Chalmers Johnson

On April 11, 12, 13, and 14, 2003, the United States Army and United States Marine Corps disgraced themselves and the country they represent in Baghdad, Iraq's capital city. Having invaded Iraq and accepted the status of a military occupying power, they sat in their tanks and Humvees, watching as unarmed civilians looted the Iraqi National Museum and burned down the Iraqi National Library and Archives as well as the Library of Korans of the Ministry of Religious Endowments. Their behavior was in violation of their orders, international law, and the civilized values of the United States. Far from apologizing for these atrocities or attempting to make amends, the United States government has in the past five years added insult to injury.

Donald Rumsfeld, then secretary of defense and the official responsible for the actions of the troops, repeatedly attempted to trivialize what had occurred with inane public statements like "democracy is messy" and "stuff happens."

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By Howard Lisnoff

For many years, now decades, I have been silent as a Jew about Israel’s relationship to, and treatment of, the Palestinian people and my place as an American Jew in that equation. Recently, I looked back at the Jews who I have known personally, as friends and acquaintances, and examined how their views about Palestinians and Israel have affected me and deepened my silence.

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By Patty O'Grady

Did you know that when John McCain was away from home for extended periods of time working as a U.S. Senator, Mrs. Cindy McCain would tell her children with his acquiescence that he was “deployed” and imagined herself just another lonely - albeit very, very wealthy - naval wife?

As a military wife and daughter I don’t think living in D.C. - wining and dining lobbyists – is the equivalent of deployment to Afghanistan, Iraq or Vietnam.

Why is this story worth repeating? The Cinderella quality of such imaginings provides a telling context – revealing the man and his presumptions hiding behind the mask of war hero.

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Sheikh Raad Salah has previously been accused of 'inciting racism and violence'

Israeli security forces have raided the offices of the Islamic Movement and al-Aqsa institution in the northern Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm, accusing them of supporting the Palestinian Hamas movement.

Dozens of police officers and agents from the Shin Bet intelligence agency took part in the raid early on Sunday.

Documents, computers, and a safe with hundreds of thousands of dollars were confiscated in the operation which was ordered by the defence ministry, a police official said.

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GAZA (23 August 2008) - Two small boats, the SS Free Gaza and the SS Liberty, successfully landed in Gaza early this evening, breaking the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The boats were crewed by a determined group of international human rights workers from the Free Gaza Movement. They had spent two years organizing the effort, raising money by giving small presentations at churches, mosques, synagogues, and in the homes of family, friends, and supporters.

They left Cyprus on Thursday morning, sailing over 350 kilometers through choppy seas. They made the journey despite threats that the Israeli government would use force to stop them. They continued sailing although they lost almost all communications and navigation systems due to outside jamming by some unknown party. They arrived in Gaza to the cheers and joyful tears of hundreds of Palestinians who came out to the beaches to welcome them.

Two small boats, 42 determined human rights workers, one simple message: “The world has not forgotten the people of this land. Today, we are all from Gaza.”

Tonight, the cheering will be heard as far away as Tel Aviv and Washington D.C.

“We recognize that we’re two, humble boats, but what we’ve accomplished is to show that average people from around the world can mobilize to create change. We do not have to stay silent in the face of injustice. Reaching Gaza today, there is such a sense of hope, and hope is what mobilizes people everywhere,” said Huwaida Arraf.

Huwaida is Palestinian-American, and also a citizen of Israel. She’s a human rights activist and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement. In 2007 she received her Juris Doctor from American University in Washington D.C. Currently she teaches Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Al Quds University in Jerusalem. Huwaida sailed to Gaza aboard the SS Liberty.

“We’re the first ones in 41 years to enter Gaza freely - but we won’t be the last. We welcome the world to join us and see what we’re seeing,” said Paul Larudee, Ph.D.

Paul is a cofounder of the Free Gaza Movement and a San Francisco Bay Area activist on the issue of justice in Palestine. He sailed to Gaza aboard the SS Liberty.

“What we’ve done shows that people can do what governments should have done. If people stand up against injustice, we can truly be the conscience of the world,” said Jeff Halper, Ph.D.

Jeff is an Israeli professor of anthropology and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), a non-violent Israeli peace and human rights organization that resists the Israeli occupation on the ground. In 2006, the American Friends Service Committee nominated Jeff to receive the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with Palestinian intellectual and activist Ghassan Andoni. Jeff sailed to Gaza aboard the SS Free Gaza.

For More Information, please contact:

(Gaza) Huwaida Arraf, tel. +972 599 130 426

(Gaza) Jeff Halper, tel. +972 542 002 642

(Cyprus) Osama Qashoo, tel. +357 99 793 595 / osamaqashoo@gmail.com

(Jerusalem) Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, tel. +972 547 366 393 / angela@icahd.org

Palestinians and reporters wait to
receive the free Gaza ships

GAZA – The Free Gaza ships docked Saturday at aproximately six o'clock local time in the Gaza port. The two wooden boats were greeted by hundreds of Gazans and journalists who lined the beach and piled into boats to welcome the activists.

The group will stay in Gaza for at least ten days, first attending a conference on the situation, then touring the entire Gaza Strip to see first hand what the siege has done to the area. Officials said it was possible that the crew will meet local political leaders, though no decision has been made.

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Ken Freeland made this compilation of relevant articles about the role of Israel in the Caucasian War:

The Role of Israel in the Georgian War

Two airfields in southern Georgia had been earmarked for the use of Israeli military aircraft, intended to launch an attack on identified targets relating to Iranian atomic energy projects. This attack was approved by President Bush in an undertaking with the government of Israel signed in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 2006 it is now believed that the Russian special forces have captured, intact, a number of the Israeli drones and, far more important, their radio controlling equipment... , units of the Russian air force bombed the Israeli bases in central Georgia and in the area of the capital, Tbilisi. They also severely damaged the runways and service areas of the two Georgian airbases designed to launch Israeli sir force units in a sudden attack on Iran.

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By Patrick Cloutier

Since the Russo-Georgian War of August 2008, the United States has strongly condemned Moscow's leadership. It accuses the Russian Federation of "brutal" attacks, of "bullying" its neighbor, and suggests that Prime Minister Putin is trying to restore the Russian Empire. But US leadership and media diminish the fact that it was Georgia, under the leadership of President Saakashvili, who attacked Russian troops first. What is this war all about?

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By Abdul Tawab Wahab, Afghani artist

Afghanistan's interior mininstry says US-led forces killed 76 civilians in an operation on Wednesday in the west of the country.

The ministry issued a statement on Friday, saying: "Seventy-six people, all civilians and most of them women and children, were martyred during
the operation by coalition forces in Shindand district of Herat province."

"Nineteen women, seven men and the rest children all under 15 years of age," were killed in the operation, the statement said.

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Like Iraq, Vietnam was not a noble cause. It's time we stopped letting politicians and the press perpetuate the McCain War Hero myth.

Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet at 11:35 AM on August 21, 2008.

Confession: I have not yet read all six (short, illustrated, large type) chapters of Mike's Election Guide 2008, Michael Moore's, latest work of jaunty political opinion. Am I supposed to discuss it with him on "Meet the Bloggers" tomorrow? Yes. But I'm not worried. It's a breezy read, has already made me laugh out loud, and besides, I may have already found the best part in Chapter One.

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Mohamed Mosaddeq

The quandary of US regional policy now can be traced, in large part, to its ouster of a democratically elected Iranian liberal, writes Mustafa El-Labbad*

Exactly 55 years ago, on 19 August 1953, a coup took place in Tehran. The target of that coup was Mohamed Mosaddeq, the man who challenged Western domination and an archaic oriental monarchy.

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The World of Islamic Art, Bernard O'Kane, Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2007. pp224, illustrated; Medieval Islamic Medicine, Peter E. Pormann and Emilie Savage-Smith, Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2007. pp240, 12 b/w illus

By Jill Kamil

Islam produced a glorious cultural and scientific legacy. The World of Islamic Art by Bernard O'Kane outlines how Islam, having originated in the Arabian peninsula, grew so rapidly that within a century it had dominated North Africa as well as the former Christian heartlands of Syria and Anatolia and spread even further eastward. The authors of Medieval Islamic Medicine, by contrast, provide us with salacious anecdotes that will surprise those who think of Islamic culture as uniform or monolithic.

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While Israel appears the beneficiary of US interests in the Middle East region, its place is ultimately as one pillar under a US strategic umbrella, writes Galal Nassar

'With THAAD, the Patriot system, and its own Arrow system, Israel, together with the US, will have the most sophisticated antiballistic defence system in the world'

What Israel fears most is the prospect of Moscow supplying Damascus with the Iskander-E ground-to-ground missile, with a range of 200 kilometres... In the eventuality of a missile exchange [between Israel and Syria], Iran would most likely intervene with its Shehab-3 missiles to deliver coordinated strikes against Israeli targets, while Hizbullah would chip in from Lebanon, targeting towns and settlements in northern Israel

U.S. Army missiles

By Galal Nassar

During his visit to the US last month, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak announced that Washington would soon link Israel to two advanced missile detection systems that would strengthen Israel's preparedness against any Iranian threat. Following his meeting with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Barak also announced that Israel and the US were at an advanced stage in talks on upgrading Israel's Arrow-II ballistic shield, though they disagreed over whether it should incorporate an American interceptor missile. He told reporters that Washington would also increase Israel's access to its Defence Support Programme (DPS) satellites that can detect missile launches, adding that the US and Israeli governments "see eye to eye on the need to keep all options on the table, though we may not agree on each and every detail. It's important the Americans understand our position, and I think that they understand it a lot better after this visit."

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With Obama fully assimilated into the American machine, and with Arab disunity as stark as ever, the region shouldn't expect change any time soon, writes Azmi Bishara

Al ahram

The Obama phenomenon is a new and major development in US political life. Media people over there like to call it a breath of fresh air. It has injected new life into politics, inspired higher levels of public interest and voter registration, and supplied copious fodder for the media machine.

A major feature of this year's campaign season in the US is the American public's thirst for settling scores with the Bush administration's deception of the American people after 11 September, its military adventurism and its application of neoconservative ideology in American policies overseas. The Obama phenomenon feeds this thirst, while the candidate himself, the aspirant to presidential rank and power, benefits from this climate without having to offer anything really new -- apart, that is, from a rhetorical flare that contrasts strikingly with Bush's leaden tongue, and a talent for judicious arguments that never exceed the bounds of political correctness, that pay lip-service to democratic debate but that are carefully pitched not to offend anyone from the right.

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Reuters

The boats are carrying 40 activists,
200 hearing aids and 5,000 balloons

Fri 22 Aug 2008, 7:16 GMT
By Michele Kambas

LARNACA, Cyprus (Reuters) - International activists departed from Cyprus by boat on Friday in an attempt to run an Israeli sea blockade on 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza.

The 44 activists sailed from the port of Larnaca in two wooden boats at 9:50 a.m. (7:50 a.m. British time). Hailing from 14 countries, they said they expected to reach the shores of Gaza, patrolled by the Israeli navy, on Saturday.

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Truthdig

By William Pfaff

A convincing account of the origin and development of the war between Russia and Georgia has now been provided by The New York Times, clarifying what it charitably describes as the “miscalculation, missed signals, and overreaching” responsible for the war.

The one thing it does not clarify is who is ultimately responsible for an American policy toward Russia that since the collapse of the Soviet Union has been aggressive, militarily overbearing and threatening to the integrity of Russia, to absolutely no useful purpose. The conventional Western comment says the NATO governments have underestimated “Russia’s determination to dominate its traditional sphere of influence.”

This is wrong. Russia has been amazingly tolerant of successful Western efforts to annex its “traditional sphere of influence,” if that term means the Warsaw Pact, which until 1991 was the Communist counterpart to NATO, lending troops to enforce the so-called Brezhnev Doctrine, which held that membership in the Warsaw Pact and in the “Socialist bloc” was irreversible.

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END THE SIEGE OF GAZA -- NO ATTACK ON IRAN

Join our March and Public Meeting

The Palestinian Gaza Strip has been locked down by Israel for two years. Over 220 patients have died because Israel won’t let them leave the Strip for better medical treatment. Trade is almost non-existent. Recently the UN said unemployment in the Strip is 45%, the highest in the world.

Two boats, the “Free Gaza” and the “Liberty” are trying to go from Cyprus to Gaza to break the blockade. We say, “Let the Boats In!”

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Israel: Hamas gets month to negotiate Shalit release before assassinations begin

BETHLEHEM _ Israel will assassinate Hamas leaders if kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is not returned, according to Hamas sources in the Zionist state.

Sources leaked the information to the Arabic London daily paper Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Thursday. The source continued, saying that Egypt asked Hamas to carry out serious negotiations with Israel in order to reach a swap deal within a month's time.

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“Give me your tired, your poor; your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; the wretched refuse of your teeming shore; send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me -- SO I CAN DETAIN THEM AND MAYBE LOCK THEM UP FOR A LONG, LONG TIME!"

By Emily Feder

I was recently stopped by Homeland Security as I was returning from a trip to Syria. What I saw in the hours that followed shocked and disturbed me.

I arrived at JFK Airport two weeks ago after a short vacation to Syria and presented my American passport for re-entry to the United States. After 28 hours of traveling, I had settled into a hazy awareness that this was the last, most familiar leg of a long journey. I exchanged friendly words with the Homeland Security official who was recording my name in his computer. He scrolled through my passport, and when his thumb rested on my Syrian visa, he paused. Jerking toward the door of his glass-enclosed booth, he slid my passport into a dingy green plastic folder and walked down the hallway, motioning for me to follow with a flick of his wrist. Where was he taking me, I asked him. "You'll find out," he said.

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Ninth Circuit rules effluent does not defile sacred space. Forest Service argued skiing on treated sewage "a compelling government interest."

The San Francisco Peaks are visible from many parts of the Southwest's Four Corners and have been sacred to at least 13 recognized Native American tribes for at least as long as Europeans have been in the country. Northern Arizona University Professor Miguel Vasquez described the argument that only a part of the Peaks are affected by the planned spraying of up to 1.5 million gallons a day of effluent for snowmaking as "equivalent to saying it's O.K. to piss in St. Peter's as long as you only do it in one corner." (Photo: Calvin Johnson / Save the Peaks Coalition)

by: Leslie Thatcher, t r u t h o u t | Interview

The San Francisco Peaks of Northern Arizona "are sacred to at least 13 formally recognized Indian tribes ... and this religious significance is of centuries duration."(1) In February 2005, the US Forest Service issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision approving a proposal to make artificial snow using treated sewage effluent at the Snowbowl Resort located on Humphrey's Peak, the highest and - to the tribes - most holy of the San Francisco Peaks. That decision was appealed by the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Havasupai Tribe, the Hualapai Tribe, the Yavapai-Apache Nation and the White Mountain Apache Nation. The Circuit Court ruled for the Forest Service. In February 2007, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court unanimously overturned the lower court's decision. On Friday, August 8, 2008, the en banc majority of the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that "using treated sewage effluent to make artificial snow on the most sacred mountain of southwestern Indian tribes does not violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ('RFRA'). It also holds that a supposed pleading mistake prevents the tribes from arguing under the National Environmental Act ('NEPA') that the Forest Service failed to consider the likelihood that children and others would ingest snow made from the effluent."(2)

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Iraqi Army soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 53rd Brigade, in raid in Diyala province, Iraq. (Photo: Loay Hameed AP)

By Nicholas Spangler and Laith Hammoudi, McClatchy Newspap

BAGHDAD _ Iraqi forces raided the provincial government compound in Diyala early Tuesday morning, killing the governor's secretary and confiscating computers and cars before local police engaged them in a two-hour gun battle, police and local officials said.

Four policemen were wounded, according to a police source.

Forces arrested Hussein al Zubaidi, provincial council member and head of the security committee. A nearby raid conducted almost simultaneously by unidentified armed forces arrested the president of Diyala University.

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By Eric Fingerhut on Aug 20, 2008 in Democratic convention, Featured, Jimmy Carter

A day after the Democrats announced that former President Jimmy Carter would be speaking next Monday at their convention, the Republican Jewish Coalition is demanding his removal from the schedule. Carter spoke at the convention four years ago, but that was before the 2006 release of his controversial book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” Here’s the release:

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20 August 2008
BILIN, West Bank: The Palestinian protesters massed at the fence expected tear gas and rubber bullets; what they got instead was a putrid yellow wind, Israel’s newest weapon against West Bank demonstrators.

The noxious mist, which Israeli police refer to as “skunk,” was used for the first time earlier this month, when a truck-mounted cannon sprayed it over the heads of protesters, sending them racing down the hillside, retching and tearing off their shirts to try to escape the stench.

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Talansky lawyers seeking Israel testimony without U.S. repercussions

By Ofra Edelman and Tomer Zarchin

JERUSALEM, Palestine _ State Prosecutor Moshe Lador and Jerusalem District Attorney Eli Abarbanel will meet Wednesday with Morris Talansky's Israeli lawyers in an effort to find a way to allow the American Jewish businessman to complete his testimony in one of the cases against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Talansky has already given his initial testimony and was cross-examined for several days about his claim that he gave Olmert some $150,000 over a period of several years. Last Thursday, however, he announced he would not return for the remainder of his cross-examination, which had been postponed at the request of Olmert's lawyers, because his testimony here could complicate his defense in a grand jury investigation now underway against him in the United States.

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By Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's Senior Political Analyst, in New York

I could only shake my head in bewilderment, as I listened to the interviews Rick Warren, a Baptist pastor, conducted with Barack Obama and John McCain, the US presidential candidates for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.

Most absurd during the two-hour special were the exchanges about "evil".

When asked how they would deal with evil if they were elected president - would they ignore it, negotiate with it, contain it, or defeat it - Obama said he would "confront it" while McCain said unflinchingly that he would "defeat it".

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Israel is mulling over a confrontation with a group of peace activists who are sailing towards the Gaza Strip to break a suffocating siege.

"The area to which you are planning to sail is the subject of an (Israeli Navy) advisory notice which warns all foreign vessels to remain clear of the designated maritime zone," the Israeli foreign ministry said in an open letter to the participants of the Free Gaza Movement's campaign.

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By Ramzy Baroud

Yet more haunting images of blindfolded, stripped down Palestinian men being contemptuously dragged by soldiers in uniform from one place to another. Yet more footage of bloodied men lying on hospital beds describing their ordeals to television reporters who have heard this story all too often. Yet more news of Palestinian infighting, tit-for-tat arrests, obscene language and embarrassing behaviour from those who have elected themselves -- or were elected -- to represent the Palestinian people.

Once again, the important story that ought to matter the most -- that of a continually imposing and violent Israeli occupation -- is lost in favour of Palestinian-infused distractions, deliberate or not.

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Just like the Billboard painting performed in Pakistan, there is another indigineous form of art performed in Pakistan and it is the Truck Painting. With its all colorful floral patterns, depiction of human heroes with creative aspect ratios, calligraphy of poetic verses and driver’s words of wisdom, this form of art is truly a part of Pakistani transport tradition.

This photo were taken by Abro as part of a book called Food Path-Cuisine Along The Grand Trunk Road From Kabul To Kolkata published by Roli Books India and Lustre Press
www.pakistaniat.com/2008/06/18/pakistans-indigenous-truck-art/

By TARIQ ALI

Pakistan’s military dictators never go quietly. Field-Marshal Ayub was removed by a three-month long popular insurrection in March 1969. General Yahya Khan destroyed Pakistan before he departed in 1972. General Zia-ul-Haq (the worst of the lot) was blown up in his military plane rtogether with the US Ambassador in 1988. And now General Musharraf is digging his heels. There is a temporary stalemate in Pakistan. The Army is in favour of him going quietly, but is against impeachment. Washington is prepared for him to go, but quietly. And last Friday the chief of Saudi intelligence agency, Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, had secretly arrived in Pakistan and held talks with coalition leaders and President Musharraf. He wants a ‘safe exit’ for the president. Sanctuaries in Manhattan, Texas and the Turkish island of Büyükada (Prinkipo) are being actively considered. The General would prefer a large estate in Pakistan, preferably near a golf course, but security considerations alone would make that infeasible.

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By Said Mahmood Mousavi

By Dedrick Muhammad and Farrah Hassen | August 18, 2008

Though the national sentiment favors wrapping up the Iraq War, there exists a small but powerful movement for starting a new military conflict with Iran. The bipartisan drumbeats for aggression reverberate throughout the corridors of Congress. House Resolution 362 and Senate Resolution 580, for example, call on the United States to prevent Iran from "acquiring a nuclear weapons capability through all appropriate economic, political, and diplomatic means."

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By Uri Avnery

One of the wisest pronouncements I have heard in my life was that of an Egyptian general, a few days after Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem.

We were the first Israelis to come to Cairo, and one of the things we were very curious about was: how did you manage to surprise us at the beginning of the October 1973 war?

The general answered: "Instead of reading the intelligence reports, you should have read our poets."

I reflected on these words last Wednesday, at the funeral of Mahmoud Darwish.

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The family of prisoner Abu Ali Yatta [Ma'anImages]

BETHLEHEM - The Zionist government in Israel agreed Sunday to release 200 Palestinian prisoners in "goodwill gesture" to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but it turns out that most of the prisoners slated for release later in August were already due to be freed by the end of 2009, data from the Israeli prison service show.

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Nato said the incident took place in the volatile province of Helmand [AFP]

Nato-led soldiers operating in southern Afghanistan "accidentally" have killed four civilians and wounded three others in a rocket attack intended for armed groups.

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Bethlehem – The United States is deploying a high-powered early-warning radar system in the Negev desert in Israel, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

An Ameri