Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8186905.stm

A former Israeli military commander has told the BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody, reports the BBC' s Katya Adler from Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Link: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/08/02/how_many_civilian_deaths_are_acceptable/

It was a cryptic Pentagon answer to Senator John Kerry’s straightforward question, in notes from the Senate hearing on May 21: Question: According to The New York Times July 20, 2003, Secretary Rumsfeld personally approved over 50 US airstrikes in Iraq which were expected to kill up to 50 innocent Iraqi civilians each. According to Pentagon policy at the time, any strikes expected to result in 50 or more civilian deaths as unavoidable collateral damage were to be approved personally by the Secretary. The media was informed of this policy in July 2003 when the chief US commander disclosed the sign-off policy. Does that policy continue today in Afghanistan, and, if so, in what form? Do White House or Pentagon officials sign off on bombing runs where civilian casualties are expected to be higher than 50? Which officials? Answer: (DELETED)

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/08/20098333513611267.html

[This is Zionism:] The United States and the UN have condemned Israel's forcible eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem. Washington sent a letter to the Israeli foreign ministry in Jerusalem, stressing the move went against the country's obligations under the so-called "road map" to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict. US diplomats said a high-level protest will be communicated to Israel later on Monday. Islam Online: J'lem Homes...Palestinians Out, Settlers in.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=102364&sectionid=351020104

Israel is the sole nuclear-armed regime in region which has so far refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and scoffed regional and international concerns over the a Middle East free from nuclear weapons.

Link: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3755831,00.html

[This is Zionism:] The land reform bill has yet to be passed, but the Arab sector is already up in arms about it. A day before the Knesset vote that is expected to pass the bill into law, the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee sent a letter to the Knesset speaker and to the attorney general demanding that they block the bill, which they claim severely discriminates against the Arab population in Israel.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/08/2009825148146153.html

The al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun families who were evicted on Sunday have been living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood since 1956. Israel has reportedly set aside the land their houses were built on for a planned hotel project. NYT: Two families, totalling 55 people are kicked out of their homes so Israeli land thieves can move in and take more control of East Jerusalem. Netanyahu chimed in by saying 'Israel’s sovereignty over the entire city “cannot be challenged.” BBC: The US has led international condemnation of Israel after it evicted nine Palestinian families living in two houses in occupied East Jerusalem.

Link: http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7Rb6ui893tx1UOU8nCHg0Fc%2fJn0AB2leikRLLULmNj%2f8jIRso6IzdGgUCEdL81W9PE%2fojVtby%2fvfR14gcfN01dVPNFhZ0XpbC1gj7UFP4vqc%3d

The report, which was prepared by specialist in prisoners� affairs Abdelnasser Farwana, stated that the total of Palestinians who had been kidnapped since the beginning of the year rose to 3,372 citizens, dozens of them were children and women.

Link: http://blip.tv/file/2424946

District 42 City Council Member Charles Barron speaks with his guests, 40th District Assemblywoman Inez Barron, his Chief of Staff Nayo Simmons, Council Staff Member Lamont Carolina about impressions of the Middle East after their recent trip to Gaza as well as the shift in mayoral control of New York City's educational system. AntiWar: Israel Prepares for War Over WHO Gaza Reports.

Link: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/457626/us_tells_israel_iran_has_eight_weeks

Eight weeks! According to Haaretz, the liberal Israeli daily, that's how much time they're willing to give Iran to start talking. Let's hope that Iran does start talking by then, but if they don't, well, then it'll take longer. But the Obama administration seems set on tougher sanctions after that.

Link: http://www.redress.cc:80/palestine/jcook20090728

Jonathan Cook considers the latest step by the Israeli authorities to humiliate Israel's Arab citizens and eradicate their identity by forcing Arab schoolchildren to study the Zionist national anthem that celebrates their subjugation and dispossession. A leading Arab educator in Israel has denounced the decision of Gideon Saar, the education minister, to require schools to study the Israeli national anthem.

Link: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/features/article_1492033.php/#ixzz0MSqLV7LV

Peshawar - Fear is spreading across University Town, an upmarket residential area in Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar, due to the overt presence of the controversial US private security contractor Blackwater. Sporting the customary dark glasses and carrying assault rifles, the mercenaries zoom around the neighbourhood in their black-coloured armoured Chevy Suburbans, and shout at motorists when occasionally stranded in a traffic jam. The residents are mainly concerned about Blackwater's reputation as a ruthless, unbridled private army whose employees face multiple charges of murder, child prostitution and weapons smuggling in Iraq.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6tyTSK6BjM

With all the current rhetoric out of Washington regarding an Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, we wanted to gauge public opinion on the streets of Jerusalem on a sunny, Sunday afternoon last weekend. What we found was shocking but unsurprising. By Joseph Dana (www.josephdana.com) and Antony Loewenstein (www.antonyloewenstein.com). [Thanks to Crescent & Cross]

Link: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23143.htm

Pakistanis and Americans have a common problem, which is also shared by every other country on the planet–corruption in high places. The world is made to fret over the impending loss of the entire capitalist system by the overlords of the Western media, even though, the only loss for the common man will be the chains that bind him. We are all supposed to be grieving deeply for the collapse of the money system which has made so many people rich, people whom the media tells us we all want to be just like.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddgm0ScSnx4

The real reason why the U.S. continues its presence in Afghanistan is Iran the country which is an annoyance for Israel, said Karen Kwiatkowski, a writer and former U.S. Air Force officer.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/pers-j24.shtml

At the beginning of 1980, President Jimmy Carter inaugurated a major American military buildup in the Middle East. In his State of the Union address of that year, the US president outlined what became known as the Carter Doctrine, declaring, “An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”

Link: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m56312&hd=&size=1&l=e

URUKNET: The US state department stressed on Friday that President Obama is not at all considering to impose economic sanctions on Israel when it fails to comply with US demands to end construction in settlements. The US is also not willing to consider mounting international pressure on Israel.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/22/AR2009072202224.html

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani on Wednesday called on the United States to provide real-time intelligence, unmanned aircraft technology and other military assistance to help his country combat the Taliban without relying on attacks from U.S. drones.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLM2389

DICTATORSHIP: Israel will remove from school textbooks an Arabic term that describes the 1948 creation of the Jewish state as a "catastrophe", the Education Ministry said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said when he was opposition leader two years ago the word "nakba" in Israeli Arab schools was tantamount to spreading propaganda against Israel. Palestine Remembered

Link: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=m56196&hd=&size=1&l=e

Jewish settlers set ablaze hundreds of olive trees near Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Monday after a wildcat settlement was removed, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. Ali Eid of the municipal council of the Palestinian village of Burin told AFP that around 350 olive trees were burnt down. Around 20 angry settlers blocked traffic on a road near the Israeli army checkpoint in Hawara, just outside Nablus, and stoned Palestinian cars, said an AFP photographer whose camera they also tried to seize.

Link: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/07/21/twitterers-paid-to-spread-israeli-propag-1

The passionate support for Israel expressed on talkback sections of websites, internet chat forums, blogs, Twitters and Facebook may not be all that it seems. Israel’s foreign ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to surf the internet 24 hours a day spreading positive news about Israel. Internet-savvy Israeli youngsters, mainly recent graduates and demobilised soldiers with language skills, are being recruited to pose as ordinary surfers while they provide the government’s line on the Middle East conflict.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090720/ap_on_re_as/as_clinton_al_qaida

U.S. officials "firmly believe" that al-Qaida leaders who planned and carried out the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are hiding in Pakistan near its border with Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sept. 27, 2002: [We have] "bulletproof" evidence linking Saddam and al-Qaida, the organization that carried out the Sept, 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. + "We do know of certain knowledge that he [Osama Bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead."

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, February 5, 2003: Iraq both poses a continuing threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region and remains in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations by, among other things, continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability, actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability, and supporting and harboring terrorist organizations. Two weeks later, the US illegally invaded Iraq...(The "ringleaders", of course, are in the US & Israel.)

Link: http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/07/20/islam-post-modernity-and-freedom-by-muqtedar-khan/

In the light of the rise of Islam and Islamic resistance to Western colonialism and Israeli barbarism, I become more and more interested in the philosophy of Islam and the answers provided by contemporary Muslim scholars to questions having to do with Being.

Link: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1101214.html

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to visit Israel on July 27 for talks likely to focus on Iran's nuclear ambitions and U.S.-Israeli strategic ties, officials involved in planning the trip said on Sunday. As the second cabinet-level representative of the Obama administration to be hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gates could also lobby for a resolution to the bilateral dispute over the future of West Bank settlements.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR2009071900156_pf.html

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended plans for a new Jewish housing development in East Jerusalem, rebuffing the Obama administration's opposition to Israeli construction in the mostly Palestinian area. Time.com: Ariel Sharon got on Israeli radio and urged Israelis to settle more land fast. "Grab the hilltops, and stake your claim," he said. "Everything we don't grab will go to them."

Link: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4917.shtml

The way the corporate media would have it believed is that Israeli “art students” who aggressively sell cheap art door-to-door, usually at federal office buildings and the houses of government employees, are merely traveling abroad after their military service in Israel to “see the world.” In fact, these “art students” are classic intelligence operatives who have appeared before and after major terrorist events and covert operations conducted by the Mossad.

Link: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/10/latest-us-drone-strike-in-south-waziristan-brings-weeklong-toll-to-nearly-100/

A US drone fired two missiles at a suspected militant compound in South Waziristan today, killing at least eight and wounding an unknown number of others. The attack was the latest in a string of US strikes on the restive Pakistani agency which have killed over 100 in the past seven days. -By what right does the US behave in this way?

Link: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/PSLG-7TSFX3?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Israeli Forces Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and Continue to Impose a Total Closure on the Gaza Strip. Electronic Intifada: Destroying Gaza.

Link: http://www.imemc.org/article/61076

A Palestinian man from Gaza was announced dead on Wednesday after doctors were unable to treat him because of the Israeli siege on the Strip. Abed Al Haleem Zo'rob, aged 44, had brain cancer; he was denied from leaving the costal region to get the life saving medical care he needed. Doctors tried to save his life but due to the lack of equipments and needed medicine his condition became worse, until he was announced dead on Wednesday afternoon, medical sources reported.

Link: http://english.wafa.ps/?action=detail&id=12801

“Since Israel accepted the Road Map, which mandated a freeze of all settlement activity, the settler population in the West Bank has swelled from 211,400 to over 289,600 - an increase of 37% in six years,” B’tselem reported. In a report issued, Wednesday, B’tselemsa said the Israeli government has used the idea of 'natural growth' as a fig leaf to cover large-scale expansion of Jewish colonies.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/paki-j09.shtml

The United States fired multiple missiles from pilotless drones on Wednesday in two separate attacks on insurgents in Pakistan’s South Waziristan district, killing up to 60 people. The attacks followed a US missile strike in South Waziristan on Tuesday that reportedly killed 16 people. The missile strikes mark a further escalation of US drone attacks, bringing the total since last August to 45. The stepped-up US military violence in Pakistan coincides with an ongoing offensive by the Pakistani military in the Swat Valley and preparations to launch an offensive in South Waziristan, a mountainous region in the northwest of the country bordering Afghanistan. -By what right does the US act in this way?

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/06/2617502.htm

The ABC's Middle East correspondent Anne Barker became caught in violent street protests involving ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem at the weekend. This is her graphic account of her ordeal. Jerusalem Post: "Come here you stupid nigger!"

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/07/20097784914231489.html

Washington does not directly acknowledge being responsible for launching the missiles, which kill civilians as well as armed groups and contribute to anti-US sentiment in Pakistan. Five foreigners were among the dead in the attack on Tuesday, which were believed to be carried by unmanned US aircraft, the officials said. Yes we can...get away with it!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXulKcfVYiM

This most recent episode revolves around three major points: 1- Amnesty International official report on Gaza, (released July 2009) regarding the 22-day Israeli assault reveals that Israel committed war crimes and carried out reckless attacks and acts of wanton destruction in its Gaza offensive. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed using high-precision weapons, while others were shot at close range, the report concluded that Israel committed frank war crimes in Gaza. 2- Biased Corporate Media in America, and how media in the united states are neither objective nor completely honest in their portrayal of important issues, as they convey the news with lack of neutrality. 3- On Tuesday June 30 afternoon Israeli Naval Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, 23 miles off the coast of Gaza, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries. Which is an outrageous violation of international law, The Boat held humanitarian and reconstruction supplies to be given to the people of Gaza whom 80% of Gazans depends on UN aid since the Israeli blockade on the Gaza strip which is currently still on. This incidence was not the first, months earlier IDF navy boats rammed DIGNITY boat which on a humanitarian mission to Gaza. Salem-News: Israel’s Piracy’s Sequel: The Silence of The Sheep: "The US itself has all but ignored the incident – indeed, for the mainstream media here, it might not have happened. The US State Department press briefing 01 Jul 2009, , relied on details provided by Israel and relayed them without reservation, including the false assertions, that the ship was in Israeli waters and that Israel had arrested the people on board (thus implying Israel had legal police powers there). When asked about the condition and welfare of the prisoners (several of whom are American, including a former member of Congress), the questioner was referred for an answer to the “Government of Israel.” God weeps."

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/afgh-j07.shtml

The first days of the offensive by US marines into the southern province of Helmand make clear it will result in a massive escalation in violence against the Afghan people and an upsurge in resistance to the US and NATO occupation across the country.

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-us-deaths7-2009jul07,0,1275259.story

The largest one-day toll in months is a sign of intensifying conflict in the south, where a major U.S. offensive is under way, as well as increased insurgent activity in the other parts of the nation. These hired killers ("soldiers") got what they richly deserved: death. They deserved being killed because they went on an imperial killing spree and even did it for money. -We certainly hope the Afghans will kill so many of these thugs that the occupation and continuing attacks on Afghanistan will stop...

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/pers-j06.shtml

The Obama administration is carrying out a new war crime in Afghanistan. The offensive has underscored the role of the so-called “left” in the US. The Obama administration has become a vehicle for a wide variety of middle-class organizations that opposed the war in Iraq to swing behind the foreign policy of the American government. Neither of the principal organizations involved in planning US protests against the Iraq war—United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and ANSWER—are planning any demonstrations to denounce the Obama administration’s escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nor, for that matter, are they preparing any opposition to the continuation of the Iraq occupation. People in Afghanistan are fighting a just battle for their independence, which in their case means a battle to throw the US & NATO out of their country. We are talking about an illegal occupation here, one which however has been whitewashed & sanctified by the UN and the West. It is not of primary importance to us that the Taliban are real sons of bitches. They probably are. The main thing to keep in mind now is that the Afghans have a right to fight their enemy and that the US & NATO are occupying this godforsaken country illegally and for no good or justifiable reason at all. At the same time there is an insidious propaganda war going on for the hearts & minds of people in the West in order to justify and prolong our criminal presence in the area indefinitely. BOTTOM LINE: This imperial war must be resisted. If we have moral fibre at all, the Afghan war of resistance is what we must support.

Link: http://hiphopandpolitics.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/cynthia-mckinney-released-returning-to-united-states/

McKinney had been in custody since Tuesday, when she and 20 others were swept up by the Israeli Navy while allegedly trying to sail through a navy blockade. The group says it was attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza. WSWS: Red Cross issues harrowing report on situation in Gaza. FreeGaza: Letter from an Israeli Jail, by Cynthia McKinney: Zionism has surely run out of its last legitimacy if this is what it does to people who believe so deeply in human rights for all that they put their own lives on the line for someone else's children. Israel is the fullest expression of Zionism, but if Israel fears for its security because Gaza's children have crayons then not only has Israel lost its last shred of legitimacy, but Israel must be declared a failed state.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/gaza-j06.shtml

Israel’s military offensive against Gaza killed more than 1,300 people, wounded many more, made tens of thousands of people homeless, and destroyed much of Gaza’s infrastructure. Six months later, the report says, its inhabitants have been unable to rebuild their lives due to Israel’s blockade:

“Most people struggle to make ends meet. Seriously ill patients face great difficulty obtaining the treatment they need. Many children suffer from deep psychological problems. Civilians whose homes and belongings were destroyed during the conflict are unable to recover. The quantities of goods now entering Gaza fall well short of what is required to meet the population’s needs.”

Link: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/02/israel-again-rejects-total-settlement-freeze/

In comments today, Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon once again rejected the US demand to freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank, saying that Israel willl never halt “natural growth” in the settlements, and “will not suffocate the life of 300,000 Israelis who live in settlements in all legality.”

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8132274.stm

A 17-year-old Palestinian girl has been killed in Gaza by Israeli fire. After initial denials, Israeli army officials said the girl was killed by Israeli troops during a clash with Palestinian militants on Thursday.