Sunday Roundup - November 23, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at Iran, Ukraine, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and, in brief, Ebola and Mexico.

Iran
November 24 is the self-imposed deadline for Iran and the P5+1 (the permanent security council members (US, Russia, China, France, UK) plus Germany) to come to a permanent agreement on Iran's nuclear program.  The main remaining issues are the timing of the removal of the sanctions against Iran and what degree of nuclear enrichment for peaceful purposes will satisfy both sides.  “Iran has made its utmost efforts and made the necessary adjustments to its demands and we hope that all the P5+1 countries, particularly the US, which occasionally seeks excessive demands in the nuclear talks, will understand the circumstances,” [Iran President Rouhani] said, according to the state-run Press TV....Iran has been adamant that it would not allow any agreement to prevent it obtaining nuclear technology permitted by the non-proliferation treaty (NPT). But Iran and the west have different interpretations of what type of advances are permitted under the NPT, especially over enrichment capacity." [The Guardian, Nov. 12]  Opposition to a historic permanent agreement comes from three sources and Carlyn Meyer, writing at Informed Comment, warns that the critics are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water.  The right-wing in Iran does not believe their country should even be talking to the West. Critics in the American Congress have tried to impose new sanction, after Iran...started negotiating in good faith, that would derail the deal. And Israel, which is not a signer of the NPT, believes Iran should be barred from even civilian enrichment....If a negotiated Permanent Agreement doesn’t replace the Interim accord or if the talks are not extended, Iran will resume producing highly enriched uranium. The new inspectors would leave and tighter inspector regimens would die. A historic achievement for nuclear nonproliferation would be nullified.  [Informed Comment, Nov. 20]  On Thursday, officials hinted at a possible extension. A deadline to resolve a 12-year-old dispute over Iran's nuclear program may be extended from Monday to March because of sharp disagreements between Tehran and Western powers, officials close to the talks said Thursday. U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken said this week a comprehensive deal would be difficult, but not impossible, to achieve by Monday. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was not optimistic, but that there may be a way of extending the deadline.  A senior Iranian official had similar expectations. "We need more time to resolve technical issues, and don’t forget that the time frame for lifting sanctions is still a huge dispute," the Iranian official said, adding that an extension until March was a possibility. Western officials also suggested March was an option, with a resumption of talks in January....Domestic constituencies hostile to compromise remain strong on both the Iranian and U.S. sides, and a delay in concluding an agreement increases the opportunities for spoilers to win the day.  [Al Jazeera, Nov. 20]
  
Ukraine

Map of rebel-held areas is from BBC News

The ceasefire in the Ukraine has seen numerous violations since it went into effect in September.  An average of 13 people have been killed daily in eastern Ukraine since a 5 September ceasefire came into place, the UN human rights office says.  In the eight weeks since the truce came into force, the UN says 957 people have been killed, amid continuing violations on both sides.  A new report by the office describes a total breakdown of law and order in rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk.  It also highlights credible allegations of abuses by government forces.  [BBC News, Nov. 20] With rhetoric escalating on both sides, Ukrainian servicemen continuing to be deployed in eastern Ukraine, and Russian military support allegedly coming into the rebel-held areas, the Ukraine Civil War is on the verge of restarting at full throttle.  As of the end of October, more than 4,000 have been killed during the conflict and more than 900,000 persons have become refugees or internally displaced.

Occupied Palestinian Territory
As Gaza struggles to recover from this summer's onslaught, tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank have risen over the past several weeks and the cycle of oppression, protests, and violence continues. Palestinians protests have been sparked by Israel's continued settlement building - particularly the recent decision to build in East Jerusalem - and concerns regarding the Al-Aqsa mosque.  A partial listing of events of the last month is given below.  Researching the history of Jerusalem's status, Ehab Zariyeh writes, The status of Jerusalem remains one of the most vexed – and volatile – sticking points in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After occupying the eastern part of the city in the war of June 1967, Israel annexed the territory, and its political leaders proclaimed the city Israel's "eternal, undivided capital." But the international community, including the United States, continues to regard East Jerusalem as occupied territory, and to reject Israel’s decision to settle its citizens there.  The article traces the history of the struggle for control of the Holy City since the UN partition plan of 1947.  [Al Jazeera, Oct. 30]  Amos Harel writes of an operation in which Israeli police acted with restraint in a village north of Jerusalem in "How to avert an Intifada". During yesterday’s operation, an undercover Jerusalem district police force surprised two suspects while they were meeting. One suspect tried to flee, but the cops were able to seize him. The other pulled out a pistol, but the police didn’t lose their cool. They pointed their weapons at him and in the end he dropped the gun and surrendered.  This incident in Anata, coming less than 48 hours after the police shooting in Kafr Kana, proves that the results of such confrontations are very dependent on the conduct of the policemen and soldiers involved....Whether the wave of violence that began in Jerusalem and is expanding to Arab communities in Israel following Hamdan’s death will spread further will be decided by how each such incident is handled....It seems that the police and army are making efforts to control and monitor their forces to prevent additional funerals. They aren’t getting much help from Israeli ministers and MKs. [Haaretz, Nov. 10]  Without a political solution, Netanyahu appears to be facing the limits of his security-based approach.  Netanyahu has built his career on opposing the creation of a Palestinian state, standing up to U.S. pressure for territorial compromise and sounding the alarm about Iran’s nuclear work. While he may be more pragmatic than some of his coalition partners, his coupling of low-key settlement expansion with fiery rhetoric has pushed Israel’s mainstream political median steadily to the right...The problem, of course, is that absent any political process to end the occupation, Netanyahu has precious few incentives to offer the increasingly disillusioned Palestinians for cooperation to restore security....Netanyahu now confronts a domestic security crisis for which he very deliberately offers no political solution. He has taken ending the occupation and Palestinian statehood off the agenda, but having seen off U.S. efforts to complete the peace process, he offers no alternative beyond the status quo. [Al Jazeera, Nov. 18]

Palestinian-Israeli Conflict October 19 - November 18 

Oct. 19 - Einas Khalil, a 5-year-old Palestinian kindergarten student, was killed in the West Bank by an Israeli settler who ran her over with his car. [1]
Oct. 22 - A Palestinian drove his car into a Jerusalem train station, killing a three-month-old Israeli-American baby girl, Chaya Zissel Brauna, and wounding several other people. A 22-year-old Ecuadorean woman, Karen Yemima Mosquera, died later of  wounds sustained in that attack. The Palestinian driver was shot and killed shortly after the incident. [1]
Oct. 24 - A Palestinian-American teenager was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers, and 12 Palestinians were wounded during protests.  Among other demands, Palestinian protesters want Israel to cease settlement activity in East Jerusalem and honor residents’ rights. [1]
Oct. 27 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to continue building Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, despite stiff international criticism and rising tensions between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in the contested city.  Earlier in the day, Netanyahu's government announced that it would advance plans to build about 1,000 Jewish-only housing units in east Jerusalem — an attempt, Palestinians said, to further cement Israel’s control over the city, creating “facts on the ground” that would keep Jerusalem under Israeli authority in a future peace deal. [1]
Oct. 29 - An extremist rabbi was seriously wounded in a drive-by attack.  The attack [followed] a conference, at the center, which focused on the reconstruction of a Jewish temple on top of al-Aqsa Mosque, with top right-wing Jewish officials and activists in attendance. [2]
Oct. 30 - His suspected attacker was shot dead by Israeli security forces.  The suspect attempted to evade arrest by climbing onto the roof of his house and hiding there behind solar panels.  According to Israeli sources, the Police Special Anti-Terror Unit closed in on him [and] he began shooting. The unit fired back, killing him. [3]  Palestinian sources have a different version:  The Fatah movement of Jerusalem said [the suspect's] killing amounted to an extrajudicial assassination by Israeli security forces....Hejazi was alive when Israeli forces arrived on the scene, [Palestinian news agency] Maan said, adding Hejazi died after a water tank was dropped on him. [4]
Oct. 31 - East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque reopened to some Muslim worshippers after Israel had earlier ordered its closure, and following calls from the United States government and Arab countries to reverse the decision that sparked outrage. [4]
Nov. 6 - Seven Palestinians were injured...after being targeted with rubber-coated metal bullets and teargas grenades by Israeli forces, as citizens and Birzeit University scholars headed to Ofer military camp, to protest in solidarity with Jerusalem and the rising number of dead throughout Palestine. [5]
Nov. 14 - Thousands of Arab Israelis took to the streets of Israel...to protest at what they call Israeli assaults on al-Aqsa Mosque.  They were also demanding the prosecution of Israeli police who killed a 20-year old Palestinian man in northern Israel on 7 November....Hundreds of Palestinians also protested across the occupied West Bank on Friday in a campaign calling for free passage to Jerusalem and an end to the occupation. [6]
Nov. 18 - An attack by two Palestinian men on a synagogue in West Jerusalem has claimed the lives of five Israelis and injured eight others.  The Palestinian attackers, who police said were armed with a gun and axes, were shot dead by police...Following the incident, tens of Palestinians were injured in confrontations with Israeli settlers and security forces in both Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. [7]
Sources
[1] "Netanyahu vows to continue building Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem" Al Jazeera, Oct. 27 
[2] "Extremist Israeli Rabbi Shot at Jerusalem Rally" International Middle East Media Center. Oct. 30
[3] "Israeli police kill Palestinian suspect in Jerusalem assassination attempt" Haaretz, Oct. 30
[4] "Israel to reopen Al-Aqsa mosque after Palestinian outrage over closure" Al Jazeera, Oct. 30
[5] "7 Palestinians Wounded During Protest near Ofer" International Middle East Media Center, Nov, 6 
[6] "Thousands of Palestinians protest in Israel and West Bank" Middle East Eye, Nov. 14
[7] "Five dead in attack on Jerusalem synagogue" Al Jazeera, Nov. 18


Links/In Brief
Ebola 
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported today that the number of Ebola cases is “no longer increasing nationally in Guinea and Liberia, but is still increasing in Sierra Leone”, and that preparedness teams have been sent this week to Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Senegal....The WHO report issued late today in Geneva said 15,145 cases of Ebola virus disease had been reported in six affected countries (Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Spain and the United States of America) and two previously affected countries (Nigeria and Senegal) with 5,420 reported deaths. [UN News Centre, Nov. 19]

"Ebola: Mapping the outbreak" [BBC News, Nov. 21]

Mexico
"Mexico on the brink: thousands to protest over widespread corruption and student massacre" [The Guardian, Nov. 20]

"Molotov cocktails, clashes as thousands of Mexicans protest over massacre" [Reuters, Nov. 21]

Sunday Roundup - October 5, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at recent court decisions on voting rights, the Hong Kong protests, Syria, Israel's growing isolation, and Ebola.

Voting Rights (or lack thereof) 

As the US midterm elections draw near, voting rights proponents have sued in Federal court, contesting various voter suppression laws passed in Republican-controlled states.  With SCOTUS's gutting of the Voting Rights Act and their unleashing of unlimited campaign money by the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions, the voter suppression laws are the third part of the shameful Troika of Plutocracy that promises to turn this year's election into the least democratic since the days of Jim Crow. As summarized by the Brennan Center for Justice: Since the 2010 election, new voting restrictions are slated to be in place in 22 states. Unless these restrictions are blocked — and there are court challenges to laws in six of those states — voters in nearly half the country could find it harder to cast a ballot in the 2014 midterm election than they did in 2010. The new laws range from photo ID requirements to early voting cutbacks to voter registration restrictions. Partisanship and race were key factors in this movement. Most restrictions passed through GOP-controlled legislatures and in states with increases in minority turnout.
Ohio - “There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders,” Roberts wrote in the court’s main opinion in McCutcheon.  Evidently that right does not extend to minorities in Ohio without cash to throw into campaigns.  Think Progress reported on September 29:  ...the Supreme Court returned from its summer vacation for the “Long Conference,” the day when the justices consider the backlog of petitions asking them to hear cases that built up while they were away for the summer. Yet, despite the fact that the justices typically face hundreds of petitions that they must consider during this conference, five of them still found time on Monday to make it harder for Ohio residents to cast a vote. In a 5-4 decision that divided entirely along partisan lines, the Court allowed cuts to Ohio’s early voting days to go into effect. Notably, this decision came down just 16 hours before polling places were set to open in that state.
Wisconsin - The American Civil Liberties Union and other rights groups are bringing Wisconsin's voter ID law to the Supreme Court.  Arguing that one in ten voters already registered in Wisconsin may not actually get to cast their ballots this year, civil rights and citizens’ advocacy groups asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to bar a new requirement to produce a photo ID before voting.  By a vote of five to five, a federal appeals court has permitted enforcement for this year’s general election, already underway with absentee voting.  The plea for the Supreme Court to step in now was filed with Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency filings from the geographic area that includes Wisconsin.  She can act on her own, or share the issue with her colleagues. [SCOTUS blog, October 2]
North Carolina - Several provisions of North Carolina's harsh voter suppression laws were struck down by a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.  It's now headed to the Supreme Court.  In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked provisions of a North Carolina voting law that would have ended same-day registration and eliminated the counting of votes cast outside one's precinct. But it left intact a lower court decision that affirmed the law's reducing the number of early voting days, expanding what can be done to challenge voters and eliminating the discretion of county election boards from adding an extra hour on election day in extraordinary circumstances. [Daily Kos, Oct 1]

Hong Kong

Photo is by AP and appeared in The Independent
The "Umbrella Revolution": Riot police launch tear gas into the crowd
 as thousands of protesters surround the government headquarters in Hong Kong

In another "democracy" story, the Hong Kong student protests sparked by the announcement of the 2017 election framework continued.  On Thursday the protesters were demanding the resignation of Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chung-Ying as Beijing hardened its line on the protests.  Bolstered by a vote of confidence in the People's Daily, Leung shows no sign of resigning but has agreed to have a high ranking official in his administration meet with the protesters.  Speaking at the end of a fifth day of protests, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying refused to meet demonstrators’ demands to resign but said his top official, Carrie Lam, would hold a meeting with students to discuss political reforms...The protests represent the biggest challenge to Chinese rule over its special autonomous region since its handover from the UK in 1997. They were sparked by dissatisfaction over a framework handed down by Beijing for the election of Mr Leung’s successor in 2017. Under the model, candidates would have to achieve the support of at least 50 per cent of a 1,200-strong committee, which opponents say is stacked with Beijing loyalists.  [The Independent, Oct 2]  On Friday, The Guardian reported that  violent scuffles broke out in one of Hong Kong’s most famous and congested shopping districts..., as supporters of Chinese rule stormed tents and ripped down banners belonging to pro-democracy protesters.  [The Guardian, Oct 3]

Syria 

April 2014 Photo is from The Independent

The Syrian Civil War has been raging for 3-1/2 years. As of the end of August, more than 191,000 Syrians had been killed in the conflict.  More than 3,000,000 Syrians have sought refuge in other countries and 6,500,000 have been internally displaced.  Neither the government nor the rebels have been able to defeat the other side and the continuing flow of arms to both sides has only prolonged the conflict.  In a massive display of ignorance, the US Congress recently voted $500 million to arm and train the Syrian rebels.  Military experts and others warn that arming the rebels will embolden and inadvertently aid ISIS.  Writing in the Huffington Post on September 17 prior to the Congressional vote, Kate Gould and (retired) Colonel Lawrence B. Wilkerson warned "If Congress signs this check for the FSA, IS will help cash it. For years, IS has recruited former FSA fighters and seized weapons funneled to Iraq and Syria from the U.S. and other countries."  That this aid to the rebels will worsen the civil war is an obvious and foregone conclusion.  The organization Win Without War adds: "After more than a decade of war, it's clear that military force will not stop extremism in the region. Instead of dumping additional weapons into Syria, Congress should support alternatives to combat the threat of ISIS and to end the Syrian civil war."  The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) published an article by Yezid Sayigh that argues that, in the face of the growing power of Islamic State, now is the time to seek a truce in the Syrian Civil War.  Specifically Sayigh recommends that the two sides observe independent truces implemented in parallel.  This approach would not require a formal diplomatic agreement, just robust endorsement and timely coordination by the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Iran—the government’s and the opposition’s external backers that are most engaged in Iraq...Now is the moment for [these] three outside actors in particular...to pressure the regime and rebels alike to commit to separate unilateral truces, coordinating the process indirectly to ensure these are implemented in parallel.  A major advantage of this approach is that it sidesteps tortuous discussions about political preconditions and the status of the Syrian parties of the sort that rendered the otherwise commendable Geneva 1 communiqué of June 2012 stillborn.

Israel
Following on the heels of its brutal, war-crime-ridden assault on the Gaza Strip, the right-wing Israeli government announced its largest appropriation of Palestinian land in 30 years in September. Located as it is in the sensitive East Jerusalem area, the proposed settlement is one more indication of this government's lack of commitment to a just two-state solution and a viable Palestinian state.  Even the United States may have finally had enough of this intransigence.  Following a Wednesday meeting between President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu in which the 2600 home settlement was discussed, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said "The United States is deeply concerned by reports the Israeli government has moved forward" with planning for settlements in a "sensitive area" of East Jerusalem...Earnest said Israel would send a "very troubling message" by following through with the settlement project, and in noticeably blunt language said that the step was contrary to Israel's stated goal of negotiating a permanent final status agreement with the Palestinians.  "This development will only draw condemnation from the international community, [and] distance Israel from even its closest allies," Earnest said.  He added that it would also "poison the atmosphere" - not only with the Palestinians but with "the very Arab governments" with which Netanyahu had said he wanted to build relations.  All Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law  [Al Jazeera, October 2]

The EU likewise condemned the Israeli plan, calling it “highly detrimental” to diplomatic efforts for Israeli-Palestinian peace.  Brussels called on Israel to “urgently reverse” actions leading to settlement expansion in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to make the capital of a future state alongside Israel.  “This represents a further highly detrimental step that undermines prospects for a two-state solution and calls into question Israel’s commitment to a peaceful negotiated settlement with the Palestinians,” the EU’s diplomatic service said.  The housing units, which have been slated for construction since 2012 in the neighborhood of Givat Hamatos, were given final approval last week, according to the Peace Now watchdog. [Al-Arabiya/Agence France-Presse, October 3]

Meanwhile, Netanyahu was blaming the Israeli peace organization Peace Now for the United States' position on the new settlements, and he was appearing before the UN trying to conflate Hamas with ISIS.  It didn't work.  Nathan Brown, in a September 30 op-ed piece for CEIP, "Netanyahu's Convenient Lies About ISIS and Hamas", writes: Speaking at the General Assembly this week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu repeated a refrain he has sounded for three decades (since his days as Israeli ambassador to the U.N.) — that all forms of terrorism are different sides of the same coin and have civilization as their target...But is it accurate? Well, yes of course — in the same sense that France’s François Hollande, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Israel’s HaPoel Tel Aviv all spring from the same socialist movement. It’s not clear how such claims aid understanding, analysis or policy.  I'm not sure how to define terrorism.  Perhaps we should look at the number of civilian deaths, all of which are inexcusable and should be considered war crimes.  1462 civilians in Gaza were killed by Israeli firepower.  6 civilians were killed by Hamas' flying pipe bombs (referred to in the press as "rockets").   Seems that the IDF assault against Gaza did a pretty good job of terrorizing the impoverished and blockaded enclave.

Ebola
[Mother Jones, October 1] On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States; the infected patient was a man who traveled from Liberia to visit family in Texas. It's the latest development in the ever-worsening outbreak of the virus, which so far has sickened more than 6,500 people and killed more than 3,000. The United States government has pledged to send help to West Africa to help stop Ebola from spreading—but the main agencies tasked with this aid work say they're hamstrung by budget cuts from the 2013 sequester.  Sequestration caused budget cuts in the National Institute of Health's budget affecting every area of medical research.  Cuts to international aid budgets and to USAID totaling $700 million affected the detection and containment of the disease.  Dr. Beth Bell of the CDC testifying before a Senate committee, argued that the epidemic could have been stopped if more had been done sooner to build global health security... "If even modest investments had been made to build a public health infrastructure in West Africa previously, the current Ebola epidemic could have been detected earlier, and it could have been identified and contained."
Update: On Friday, the World Health Organization reported the latest Ebola figures: 3,431 people killed by the disease out of 7,470 confirmed or suspected cases in west Africa

Sunday Roundup - September 7, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at Ukraine, Israel's new settlement announcement, ISIS, Ebola, and Yellowstone's supervolcano.

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"One of the greatest cultural duties of the Jewish people is the attempt to re-enter the Promised Land, not by means of conquest...but through peaceful and cultural means, ..and with a decision not to do anything which cannot be justified before the world conscience."

- Rabbi Judah Magnes, Address at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1929, quoted in I.F. Stone's essay in Harper's Magazine,"The Other Zionism" (September 1978)

"...the territory internationally recognized as the State of Palestine [by the UN General Assembly vote of November 2012] constitutes 22 percent of historic Palestine.  We have forgiven you for 78 percent....You're telling us to compromise on the 22 percent?"

- Bassim Khoury, Israel and Palestine Forum, Harper's Magazine (September 2014)

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Ukraine
Tuesday was marked by contradictory statements. Vladimir Putin proposed a seven-point peace plan and Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, announced that a permanent ceasefire had been agreed in the civil war.  But, as The Guardian reported on Wednesday, Arseny Yatsenyuk, Ukraine's prime minister, dismissed the peace plan, which Putin had apparently jotted down on a flight to Mongolia, calling it a trap....On the ground there was no sign of a ceasefire. Clashes continued as both rebels and Ukrainian volunteers said they would continue fighting.  Both sides planned to meet in Minsk on Friday to hopefully, according to Putin, close the deal.  In the end, the ceasefire was agreed,  Reuters reported on Friday, Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels agreed a ceasefire on Friday, the first step towards ending a conflict in eastern Ukraine that has caused the worst standoff between Moscow and the West since the Cold War ended.  The deal, taking effect from 1500 GMT(11.00 a.m. EDT), was agreed at peace talks with representatives of Russia and the OSCE security and rights group in the Belarussian capital Minsk.

Meanwhile, NATO is having its summit in Wales on Thursday and Friday (Sep 4-5). NATO hardliners were expected to push for a firmer stance against Russia after what Der Spiegel called Angela Merkel's "failed diplomacy" with Putin. [Spiegel Online, Sep 1]  The Guardian reported on Friday that NATO leaders have promised to press ahead with fresh sanctions against Russia, despite the announcement of a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. They welcomed this development, but only cautiously, stressing the need for Russia to prove by actions, not just words, its commitment to peace. However, the full details of sanctions have yet to be announced. And NATO leaders have said that, if the ceasefire proves robust, the new sanctions will be withdrawn.  [The Guardian, Sep 5]

Israeli-Palestinian Relations
Unleashing a wave of international criticism, including some from the United States, Israel announced yet another takeover of Palestinian land. 988 acres in the West Bank are being expropriated for settlement construction. The Jewish-American organizations J Street and Americans for Peace Now have come out forcibly against the settlement expansion.

Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are nearly universally seen as illegal according to international law.  The Guardian reported on the international reaction on Wednesday: John Kerry has called the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, amid a US effort to persuade Israel to reverse the go-ahead for the largest appropriation of land on the occupied West Bank since the 1980s. The secretary of state's call followed the disclosure that the US had officially requested Israel to reverse the decision, amid mounting criticism of the move both internationally and within Netanyahu's own cabinet.  Kerry is preparing to meet Palestinian negotiators seeking a firm deadline for Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territories to the pre-1967 borders. Failing that, Palestinian officials have warned they will seek a UN resolution setting a three-year deadline for the end of the occupation...Israel's announcement on Sunday has seen strong protests from the UK and European governments including France and Spain, and from Italian foreign minister Federica Mogherini, who was just appointed the EU's next foreign minister.  The US announcement was notably silent on what would be the consequences, if any, should Israel ignore the international community. Unfortunately, as we saw in the most recent siege of Gaza, actions without consequences or accountability will be repeated.  By making a viable, contiguous Palestinian state nearly impossible, settlements are a major impediment to the two-state solution.  There are 300,000 - 400,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and another 250,000 - 300,000 in East Jerusalem.

The "flip side" of expropriating Palestinian land is the demolition of Palestinian homes and buildings.  According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, as of March 2012: Israel has demolished more than 28,000 Palestinian homes, businesses, livestock facilities and other structures vital to Palestinian life and livelihood in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  And this is just since 1967 when the Occupation began.  The ICAHD report notes that between 1948 and into the 1960s, Israel systematically demolished...531 Palestinian villages and eleven urban neighborhoods inside of what became the State of Israel, two-thirds of the villages of Palestine.

Palestinian women viewing building complex destroyed by Israeli rockets
(Photo credit: AFP; appeared in The Telegraph)

Added to this, nearly 17,000 homes in Gaza were destroyed or severely damaged in the recent Israeli siege.  The Jerusalem Post reported on Friday: Rebuilding Gaza will cost $7.8 billion, the Palestinian Authority said on Thursday, in the most comprehensive assessment yet of damage from a seven-week war with Israel during which whole neighborhoods and vital infrastructure were flattened.  The cost of rebuilding 17,000 Gazan homes razed by Israeli bombings would be $2.5 billion, the Authority said, and the energy sector needed $250 million after the Strip's only power plant was destroyed by two Israeli missiles.

Islamic State
Tom Englehardt at TomDispatch has written a piece on the US' inadvertent role in the rise of the Islamic State.  All in all, the invasions, the occupations, the drone campaigns in several lands, the deaths that ran into the hundreds of thousands, the uprooting of millions of people sent into external or internal exile, the expending of trillions of dollars...would prove [to be] jihadist recruitment tools par excellence.  When the U.S. was done, when it had set off the process that led to insurgencies, civil wars, the growth of extremist militias, and the collapse of state structures, it had also guaranteed the rise of something new on Planet Earth: ISIS -- as well as of other extremist outfits ranging from the Pakistani Taliban, now challenging the state in certain areas of that country, to Ansar al-Sharia in Libya and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen.  Though the militants of ISIS would undoubtedly be horrified to think so, they are the spawn of Washington.  Thirteen years of regional war, occupation, and intervention played a major role in clearing the ground for them.  They may be our worst nightmare (thus far), but they are also our legacy....In fact, just about everything done in the war on terror has facilitated their rise.  After all, we dismantled the Iraqi army and rebuilt one that would flee at the first signs of ISIS’s fighters, abandoning vast stores of Washington's weaponry to them. We essentially destroyed the Iraqi state, while fostering a Shia leader who would oppress enough Sunnis in enough ways to create a situation in which ISIS would be welcomed or tolerated throughout significant areas of the country.  As neocons, media hawks and militarists once again begin pounding the war drums, Engelhardt asks what is to be done about the new terrorist threat?  There may, however, be no obvious or at least immediate solution when it comes to ISIS, an organization based on exclusivity and divisiveness in a region that couldn’t be more divided.  On the other hand, as a minority movement that has already alienated so many in the region, left to itself it might with time simply burn out or implode.  We don’t know.  We can’t know.  But we do have reasonable evidence from the past 13 years of what an escalating American military intervention is likely to do: not whatever it is that Washington wants it to do....The American record in these last 13 years is a shameful one.  "Do it again" should not be an option.



Ebola

Source:Mother Jones article

The Ebola outbreak which has so far claimed more than 1500 lives has spread to Nigeria and Senegal.  In the last few days, with the virus entering Senegal and health workers discovering a fresh outbreak in Nigeria, global health groups such as the World Health Organization are getting increasingly strident with their concerns. On Sunday, WHO officials called Ebola's arrival in Senegal "a top priority emergency." On Tuesday, Joanne Liu, international president of the global health organization Doctors Without Borders, warned the United Nations that the world was "losing the battle to contain" the disease. "Leaders are failing to come to grips with this transnational threat," she said.  The increased concern comes from the recognition that unlike Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal are international transit hubs....More than 30 carriers fly through the Léopold Sédar Senghor airport in Dakar [Senegal], on the continent's westernmost point, ferrying passengers to and from destinations in 25 countries around the world. While most of the routes are regional, some connect with major airports in New York City, Paris, Istanbul, Dubai, and Johannesburg....Nigeria, like Senegal, is internationally connected, with flights to and from numerous countries and a running influx of expatriates, mostly affiliated with the nation's oil industry. A quick response by Nigerian authorities helped keep the case count in Lagos to a minimum—on Tuesday, Nigeria's health ministry reported a total of just 17 confirmed cases nationwide since the outbreak began. [Mother Jones, Sep 4]

Yellowstone's Sleeping Giant

(From Salon.com article: Credit:  Nina B/Shutterstock)

Beneath Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming, there lies a massive volcano, also known as the Yellowstone Supervolcano. It’s erupted, spectacularly, three times over the past 2.1 million years: If you take the amount of ash produced from each, you’d have enough to fill the Grand Canyon. The last eruption occurred about 640,000 years ago, and at some point, it’s probably going to happen again. Lindsay Abrams at Salon,com reports on a study recently published in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems on the effects of such an eruption.  Computer modeling indicates that a supereruption...would spew about 240 miles of [ash] into the atmosphere, effectively shutting down electronic communications and air travel throughout the continent....Cities closest to the eruption could end up blanketed in up to a meter of ash; those on the East, West and Gulf Coast would get smaller, but still disruptive, ash deposits of their own.  Even in places where the ash layer is only millimeters thick, water supplies and crops would be ruined; it would be hard to drive, and people would develop respiratory problems. And the climate itself would change significantly.  The scientists stress that this is unlikely to occur in the 21st century. [Salon.com, Sep 2]

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Sunday Round-Up - February 9, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the Syrian Civil War, Israeli-Palestinian relations, the Eurozone recession, the cuts to the US food stamps program and climate change.



Syria
With a three-day ceasefire in place, the first stage of the evacuation of the besieged city of Homs began on Friday.  As reported in The Guardian: "Scores of Syrian women, children and elderly men from the besieged old city of Homs have been evacuated to safety and humanitarian supplies are expected to be allowed in in the first stage of a limited relief operation agreed between the UN and the government of President Bashar al-Assad."  The Assad government has agreed to attend the second round of Geneva II peace talks. The NGO Save The Children welcomed the deal but sees it as a temporary measure: "We need all parties to the conflict to allow immediate humanitarian assistance into Homs and other besieged areas all across Syria, from Aleppo to Damascus." [The Guardian, February 7]


Israel-Palestine

Palestinian workers from Hebron at a checkpoint. Image credit:Emil Salman; Haaretz, February 7

AIPAC and Benjamin Netanyahu are still reeling from their failed ham-handed attempt to derail the Iran nuclear negotiations.  Support for the new Iran sanctions bill is diminishing with several former cosponsors now saying they changed their mind.  So back to the main issue of concern for Israelis - how are the US sponsored negotiations with the Palestinians going?  Recent polls suggest that neither the Palestinian nor the Israeli public believes a deal can be reached.  The negotiations are stalled and the US is signaling that the original April 29 date for a final agreement is in jeopardy.  There is Palestinian anger at the ongoing Israeli permitting of illegal settlements on Palestinian land, and the destruction of Palestinian homes is at a five year high.  A key stumbling block for the Israelis is the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.  It seems to me that one solution might be Arab and Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state combined with a recognition of the Palestinian right of return, a guarantee that Palestinians will be accorded full rights in Israel should they choose to return, and an end to settlement activity and home destruction on Palestinian lands.


Russia Today reported on Friday of the protests lodged by aid groups and the UN on the destruction of the Palestinian homes.  "In a statement Friday, 25 aid organizations said the number of demolitions went up by almost half and the displacement of Palestinians by almost three-quarters between July 2013 – when peace negotiations began again – and the end of the year, compared to the same time period in 2012.  The groups said that of the 663 Palestinian structures destroyed by Israel in 2013, 122 were constructed with international donor aid. The 663 demolitions mark the highest number in the last five years. 'International and local aid organizations have faced increasingly severe restrictions in responding to the needs created by the unlawful demolition of civilian property, in violation of Israel's obligation to facilitate the effective delivery of aid,' wrote the groups, which included Oxfam. 


On Thursday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on the meeting between "chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat  [and] U.S. Middle East peace talks envoy Martin Indyk, against a backdrop of tension between Israel and the United Sates and criticism in Jerusalem of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry...Erekat said Thursday in an interview on Al Jazeera television that the Palestinian response to Israel’s continued construction in East Jerusalem was to join the Geneva Convention, in preparation for declaring the settlements a war crime and bringing Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague." 

Eurozone Recession
The Guardian reported on January 31 that  Eurozone unemployment dropped for the third straight month in January.  Overall unemployment in the Eurozone is still at 12%, ranging from ~5% in Austria and Germany to over 25% in Spain and Greece. "Youth unemployment fell by 23,000 to 3.53 million, with the youth jobless rate falling to 23.8% from 24% in November."  European policymakers are "becoming increasingly concerned about the risk of deflation, with the latest data showing inflation fell to 0.7% in January from 0.8% in December."

Food Stamp Cuts
The Republican assault on the social safety net continues.  Not only have they blocked the extension of long-term unemployment benefits - the measure fell one vote short of the required 60 to break the Senate filibuster - but they managed a big win in the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program passed as part of the farm bill.  Mother Jones reporter Erika Eichelberger wrote on January 31 of the impending passage of the Farm Bill by the Senate with its subsequent sign-off by the President.  Both of these steps have now been executed and $8.6 billion will be taken from the food stamps program over the next 5 years.  It's less than the Tea Party wanted but double the amount in the original Senate bill.  Eichelberger explains why the compromise level of cuts is a Republican win: "In addition to the [nearly] $9 billion in food stamp cuts in this five-year farm bill, another $11 billion will be slashed over three years as stimulus funding for the program expires. The first $5 billion of that stimulus money expired in October; the rest will disappear by 2016. In the months since the first $5 billion in stimulus funding was cut, food pantries have been struggling to provide enough food for the hungry. Poverty remains at record high levels, and three job applicants compete for every job opening.And yet, despite the $5 billion in cuts that already happened and the guarantee of $6 billion more, Republicans succeeded in getting their Democratic peers to cut food stamps further."  As the non-profit Feeding America noted "The $8.6 billion cut means that 850,000 SNAP recipients will lose an average of $90 in monthly benefits. That’s not a talking point. That’s real food for families that are struggling."

Climate Change
Haven't heard much on climate change in the news recently?  You're not alone.  Tom Engelhardt bemoans the lack of coverage in a February 2 essay on the TomDispatch website.  "That the anything-but-extreme Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offers an at least 95% guarantee of human causation for global warming is not a story, nor is the recent revelation that IPCC experts believe we only have 15 years left to rein in carbon emissions or we’ll need new technologies not yet in existence which may never be effective.  Nor is the recent poll showing that only 47% of Americans believe climate change is human-caused (a drop of 7% since 2012)...Climate change isn’t the news and it isn’t a set of news stories.  It’s the prospective end of all news.  Think of it as the anti-news."




Link
Food bank locator - find a food bank in your area - from the Feeding America website

Sunday Round-Up - November 10, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the deteriorating Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Sources include Le Monde Diplomatique, Al Jazeera, boston.com, and Haaretz.

Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, considered illegal by international organizations and by most countries, continue to be approved and Palestinian anger over the continued settlement building is rising.  John Kerry is in the Middle East trying to save the peace talks.

January 2011 map from Peace Now. Blue areas are Israeli settlements
in the West Bank; the brown areas are Palestinian localities.  Peace Now
is "Israel's most veteran and diverse peace movement with over 10,000
members from the Middle East and around the world." 

The Background
An article in the November Le Monde Diplomatique describes the significance of the settlements. Laurence Bernard writes that the settlements, are "jeopardising the two-state solution.  The West Bank has...been reduced to an archipelago of little urban islands by the Separation Barrier, the line of which annexes nearly 10% of Palestine’s territory.... 60% of all Palestinian territory ...
remains under complete Israeli control. This [controlled area] already has 350,000 Israeli settlers living in 35 settlements, compared with 180,000 Palestinian residents. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is concerned at the growth of violence by settlers, the denial of construction permit applications to Palestinians by the Israeli civil administration..., and the systematic demolition of buildings erected 'without a permit'."  Bernard also discusses other key issues.

• Water - "Palestinians only have 20% of the West Bank’s water resources...[and] use only 25% as much water per person per day."
• East Jerusalem - "250,000 settlers living in Palestinian areas"
• the blockade of Gaza, "already one of the most densely populated territories in the world", - "[the] Israeli...buffer zone along the barrier denies residents access to 17% of the territory (and 33% of the farmable land)...the outer limit of the fishing zone, set at 20 nautical miles under the Oslo accord, is now reduced to between 3 and 6 miles."
• Palestinian refugees  - "nearly five million expelled from their villages in 1948 and 1967.  A third still live in 'temporary' camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria; 3.5 million rely on the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for basic health and education."  

So what can the EU do to make "credible its official support for an 'independent, democratic, contiguous and viable' Palestinian state" ?  Bernard recommends that the EU build on its recent directive that will make Israeli entities operating on Palestinian land "ineligible for grants, prizes and financial instruments" from the EU.  The EU, Israel's largest trading partner, could "threaten reprisals under the EU-Israel Association Agreement, ... freeze specific accords,... and suspend negotiations on strengthening the Association Agreement.  It could also stop importing goods manufactured or assembled in Israeli settlements in the West Bank." Finally, the EU could take action on the arms trade with Israel, the world's fourth leading arms exporter.  The arms trade "continues to grow in spite of the EU code of conduct that prohibits sales of military equipment that  might be used for internal repression or international aggression, or contribute to regional instability." 

Kerry's Trip to the Middle East

Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday on Kerry's efforts:  "Acknowledging that the negotiations had run into difficulties, Kerry spoke of a need for 'real compromises and hard decisions' from both sides...  Palestinians...have said an Israeli plan announced last week for 3,500 more settler homes in the occupied West Bank was a major obstacle to the success of the negotiations....'The Israeli side is determined to continue its settlement and we cannot continue negotiations under these unprecedented settlement attacks,' [a senior Palestinian official] said after a meeting of Israeli and Palestinian negotiators....  The settlements that Israel has built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories it captured in the 1967 Middle East war, are considered illegal by most countries."

AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee's story on Kerry's trip to Jordan was reported on Thursday on boston.com.  Kerry went to Jordan to gain support from this close US Arab ally for the stalled peace process.  Kerry "issued a stark warning to Israel on Thursday, saying it faces international isolation and a possible explosion of violence if it does not make progress in peace efforts with the Palestinians.  Kerry issued the blunt remarks in a joint interview with Israeli and Palestinian television channels, ensuring the message would reach its intended audience.  'The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos. I mean does Israel want a third intifada?' Kerry said, using the term for past Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation....'If we do not find a way to find peace, there will be an increasing isolation of Israel. There will be an increasing campaign of de-legitimization of Israel (that) has been taking place in an international basis,' he said...'What is the alternative to peace?' Kerry asked at a joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. 'Prolonged continued conflict.'

Haaretz provided additional details of Kerry's comments on "Israel’s decision to build roughly 5,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem and other settlements, alongside the release of a group of Palestinian prisoners. Kerry said settlement expansion sends a message that 'perhaps you’re not really serious,' during an interview which aired on Israel’s Channel 2, as well as in Palestinian media.  The lengthy interview ...focused on the struggling peace negotiations and Kerry’s efforts to prevent a total collapse in talks between Israel and the Palestinians.   Kerry denied the claims made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that there had been an agreement between the two sides stipulating that each wave of Palestinian prisoners released would be accompanied by settlement expansion. According to Kerry, the deal was that Israel would release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a halt of unilateral Palestinian actions at the United Nations during the nine months of negotiating.   'Palestinian leadership made it absolutely clear they believe the settlements are illegal, they object to the settlements and they are in no way condoning the settlements, but they knew Israel would make some announcements,' said Kerry."