Sunday Roundup - December 7, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at Eric Garner's death, US deportations, Israeli politics, Senator Harkin on Obamacare, Ukraine, and in brief, South Sudan and Gaza.

Correction to December 3 post, "The Death of Michael Brown": The original post gave the distance from the shooter, Darren Wilson, to Michael Brown as 148 feet as estimated by an independent source.  148 feet was the distance from Darren Wilson's SUV to the point where Michael Brown had run as estimated by the independent source.

Eric Garner

Midtown New York, Dec. 5, Credit: REUTERS/Adrees Latif

A grand jury once again failed to indict after the death of an unarmed African-American at the hands of a white police officer.  The victim this time was Eric Garner and the place was New York City.  The case of New York Police Department officer David Pantaleo wasn’t supposed to be like Ferguson. There was a video showing how a simple stop for selling untaxed cigarettes turned into a chokehold — a move prohibited by the NYPD. The medical examiner ruled the incident a homicide. Eric Garner repeatedly shouted “I can’t breathe” just before he died.  Yet, as in Ferguson, the Staten Island grand jury voted not to indict Pantaleo for anything, leaving the nation — even legal experts – exasperated, frustrated, and grasping to understand why. [Think Progress, Dec. 3]  The White House announced a civil rights investigation as protesters took to the streets.  The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has announced a federal investigation into “potential civil rights violations” around the death of Eric Garner after a grand jury decided not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the New York police officer who placed the unarmed black man in a chokehold.  Thousands of demonstrators disrupted New York City traffic into the early hours of Thursday after the grand jury verdict. Mostly peaceful protests had sprung up on Wednesday evening at locations throughout Manhattan, including Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and near Rockefeller Center, after the panel returned no indictment. [The Guardian, Dec. 4]  Protests in New York have continued into the weekend.  Protests over U.S. police violence against minorities, sparked by grand-jury decisions not to charge officers in two high-profile cases, were peaceful on their third night in New York although 20 arrests took place, authorities said on Saturday.  Protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and blocking traffic on the city's FDR Drive, a major artery that runs along the eastern side of Manhattan....The wave of angry protests began on Wednesday when a New York grand jury declined to bring charges against white officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a black 43-year-old father of six. [Reuters, Dec. 6]

Related
‘I can’t breathe’: Why Eric Garner protests are gaining momentum [Reuters, Dec. 5]  “Black Lives Matter” has become, like an earlier generation’s use of the terms “Freedom Now” and “We Shall Overcome,” an anthem for contemporary civil and human rights activism. The struggle for black equality historically and now, offers us all a chance to transform and save American democracy.

US Deportations
The American Civil Liberties Union released a report on Dec. 4 that underscores a troublesome pattern that has received far less attention [than Obama's immigration plan]: Of the 438,421 people deported in 2013, 83 percent received a summary removal, meaning that they were sent to their country of origin by US officials without a hearing. And according to the ACLU's research, many of these removals were illegal: Asylum seekers, unaccompanied kids, and others who may have qualified for relief routinely have been turned away.  There has been a backlog in the immigration court for many years and the deportations are being made using a 1996 law that, in theory, prevents immigration courts from being completely inundated while also providing safeguards...But according to the ACLU's findings, these protocols aren't often followed...No one, the ACLU included, seems to be able to provide a realistic solution to the immigration court backlog; it's undeniable that if all those requesting asylum were given a trial, the system would be further clogged.  [Mother Jones, Dec.4]

Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu's government collapsed after the ouster of two cabinet ministers who opposed the so-called "Jewish state" bill.  Three days after the Peace Now demonstration outside the Prime Minister’s home in Jerusalem, which featured a call for toppling and replacing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the government did in fact collapse. The Knesset is in the process of dissolving itself and its members have already agreed on a date for early elections.  Israelis will go to the polls on March 17, almost two full years before the end of the term of this government. [Americans for Peace Now, Dec. 3]  I'd like to share APN's optimism that the elections will bring to power an Israeli government committed to a two-state solution, but Israeli politics and public opinion continue to move to the right.  A new poll published Sunday in the Haaretz newspaper showed that while Netanyahu’s popularity is currently down, Israelis continue to support him over other prime ministerial candidates. Asked which politician is most suited to be prime minister, 35% answered Netanyahu....The same poll showed shrinking support for Lapid’s [the fired  finance minister's] centrist party and for the centrist-left-wing parties Hatnuah and Labor. The only parties to show gains are the right-wing Jewish Home and Israel Beiteinu Parties. [BuzzFeed, Dec. 3]
The UN overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution urging Israel to renounce possession of nuclear weapons and put its nuclear facilities under UN supervision and criticizing the country for not being part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  Israel possesses an estimated 80 nuclear weapons.  The resolution calls on Israel to "accede to that treaty without further delay, not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons, to renounce possession of nuclear weapons," and put its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency...Israel, which is believed to have nuclear arms but has never admitted to it, has long been under fire from Arab countries in the region for not putting its alleged stockpile under international supervision.  The resolution, initiated by Egypt, was approved by 161 nations with only five voting against it and 18 abstentions.  [Russia Times, Dec. 3]

Senator Harkin:  We Should Have Passed Single-Payer
The coauthor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act regrets that the filibuster-proof Senate of 2009 did not pass a single payer healthcare system instead.  Sen. Tom Harkin, one of the co-authors of the Affordable Care Act, now thinks Democrats may have been better off not passing it at all and holding out for a better bill.  The Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, laments the complexity of legislation the Senate passed five years ago.  He wonders in hindsight whether the law was made overly complicated to satisfy the political concerns of a few Democratic centrists who have since left Congress....Harkin, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, says in retrospect the Democratic-controlled Senate and House should have enacted a single-payer healthcare system or a public option to give the uninsured access to government-run health plans that compete with private insurance companies.  “We had the votes in ’09. We had a huge majority in the House, we had 60 votes in the Senate,” he said.  He believes Congress should have enacted “single-payer right from the get-go or at least put a public option would have simplified a lot....  We had the votes to do that and we blew it,” he said....Harkin...believes Obama and Democratic leaders could have enacted better policy had they stood up to three centrists who balked at the public option: Sens. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), a Democrat turned independent, Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). [The Hill, Dec. 3]  

Ukraine
In spite of recent fighting near the Donetsk airport, there is hope for the shaky ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.  Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels said Thursday they had agreed to halt fire on December 9 under the terms of a truce aimed at ending one of Europe's bloodiest conflicts in decades.  The unexpected announcement provides the latest glimmer of hope that fighting across the eastern rustbelt of the ex-Soviet nation was nearing to a close after eight months that saw 4,300 people killed and shattered Moscow's ties with the West....A source in [Ukrainian President] Poroshenko's office said the president's statement meant Ukraine would begin withdrawing heavy weapons from the eastern frontline on December 10 -- as long as the separatists also observed the truce....Several truce deals announced in the course of the war were broken within days by both rebels and Ukrainian soldiers who refused to listen to their political leaders. The head of the neighbouring self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic said a ceasefire that would begin in mid-December was discussed at the [September] Minsk negotiations. [AFP/ via Yahoo News, Dec. 4]

Related
"How can the West solve its Ukraine problem?" [BBC News, Dec. 3] Russia badly overplayed its hand last year ...The European Union is now risking the same thing by trying to bring Ukraine into the West without reference to economic reality or the willingness of European publics to bear the enormous costs involved.  The author lays out the economic and political reality in the Ukraine and the compromises needed by both sides for a lasting peace.

In Brief
South Sudan
The civil war in South Sudan claimed at least 50 000 lives so far [enca.com, Nov. 15]

"South Sudan: the impact of war and the importance of peace"  [The Guardian, Nov. 26] 
While South Sudan peace talks continue in Ethiopia and Tanzania, bitterly divided communities look for solutions closer to home.  The civil war in South Sudan has so far claimed at least 50,000 lives.

Gaza
U.N. begins inquiry into attacks and weapons in Gaza [Reuters, Dec. 3]

Project launched to clear Gaza rubble: UN begins clearing some 2.5 million tons of rubble from Strip, courtesy of $3.2 million donation from Sweden. [YNet/AP, Dec. 3]

Palestinian engineer has developed a replacement for cement to help the Gaza Strip deal with its housing crisis after the Israeli war [World Bulletin, Dec. 5] 
Since the July-August war, in which more than 2,100 Palestinians and 70 Israelis were killed, barely any progress has been made rebuilding the shattered territory, despite donors pledging $5 billion.  Israel tightly monitors the import of construction materials and equipment into Gaza, arguing that otherwise it could be used to rebuild tunnels used by Hamas who control the strip.  Palestinian officials and critics of Israeli policy say that has made it impossible to rebuild, leaving 40,000 of the strip's 1.8 million residents in temporary shelter and thousands more facing winter in barely habitable ruins. 

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 - November 2, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at Ukraine, recent Latin American elections, the Jerusalem protests, Hong Kong, Ebola, and, in brief, the U.S. midterm elections.

Ukraine
On October 26. parliamentary elections were held in the parts of Ukraine controlled by Kiev's troops. It was a victory for the pro-European parties.  With 98.02 percent of ballots having been counted, Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front party is ahead of its rivals, with 22.16 percent. President Petro Poroshenko's party is only slightly behind, with 21.82 percent.  The Opposition Bloc, which campaigns for a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis, has received 9.36 percent, mostly from voters in southeast Ukraine – Kharkov, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, and Donetsk Region – where the balance has shifted away from the pro-EU trend, which is widely supported in other regions....Most of the east is still under rebel control. Voting did not take place there, as the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk plan to hold their own parliamentary elections on November 2. [Russia Times, Oct. 29]  The separatist eastern region of the country, known as "Donboss", will be holding its own elections on Sunday November 2 in spite of the ongoing skirmishes and shelling occurring in violation of the ceasefire.  Russia is backing a plan by separatists in eastern Ukraine to hold a vote in areas under their control ostensibly as part of a deal with Kiev to allow limited self-rule in the region. The vote, set for Nov. 2 would come days after Ukrainian elections that saw pro-Western parties allied with President Petro Poroshenko sweep to power.  But the Ukrainian government says the elections come too early and has urged Russia to put pressure on the rebels it backs to hold off. Western governments have also opposed the poll. [NPR, October 28] Finally, Ukraine, Russia and the European Union signed a deal on Thursday on the resumption of Russian natural gas supplies to Ukraine for winter after several months of delay during the conflict in Ukraine....Talks had been broken off in the early hours as Moscow sought more guarantees from the EU that it would help Ukraine pay for its natural gas. They resumed on Thursday evening before reaching a deal....European energy commissioner Günther Oettinger...said the $4.6bn deal should extend to the spring and that it was “perhaps first glimmer of a relaxation in the relations between neighbours.” [The Guardian. Oct. 30]

Bolivia and Brazil Elections
Presidential elections were held in Bolivia and Brazil. The leftist incumbents won both elections.

On October 12, Bolivian voters returned Evo Morales for a third term with 61.4% of the vote - more than 35 points ahead of his nearest rival.  President Morales told cheering supporters at the presidential palace in La Paz that "this win is a triumph for anti-imperialists and anti-colonialists". He dedicated "this triumph" to the Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and Venezuela's late president, Hugo Chavez.  Mr Morales has overseen strong economic growth since taking office in 2006, using Bolivia's commodity wealth to reduce poverty levels. [BBC News, October 13]

Supporters of Brazil's President and Workers' Party (PT) presidential candidate
Dilma Rousseff react to first results of the Brazil general elections in Porto Alegre, October 26, 2014. 
CREDIT: REUTERS/PAULO WHITAKER

The October 26 election in Brazil, the world's seventh largest economy, was much closer.  Brazil's leftist President Dilma Rousseff narrowly won re-election on Sunday after convincing voters that her party's strong record of reducing poverty over the last 12 years was more important than a recent economic slump.  After one of the closest, most divisive campaigns in Brazil in decades, Rousseff won 51.6 percent of votes in a runoff against centrist opposition leader Aecio Neves, who won 48.4 percent....The result means another four years in power for the Workers' Party, which since 2003 has virtually transformed Brazil - lifting 40 million from poverty, reducing unemployment to record lows and making big inroads against hunger in what remains one of the world's most unequal countries. [Reuters, Oct. 26]

East Jerusalem Protests

"I urge you to pray so that the Holy City, dear to Jews, Christians and Muslims, which has experienced several tensions in these days, may be more and more a symbol and a precursor of the peace that God wishes for the entire human family."

- Pope Francis, All Saints Day (November 1) in Jerusalem

Israel reopened the al Aqsa mosque to Muslim men over 50 for Friday prayers after the "Day of Rage" protests, but tensions in East Jerusalem continue.  The closing of the mosque was prompted by the wounding of an Israeli extremist on Wednesday.  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said through his spokesman that the closure of al Aqsa combined with other dangerous escalations by Israel were "tantamount to a declaration of war."  Abbas has requested that US Secretary of State Kerry get involved in order to stop Israeli settlement projects in the city, which, in his view, will cause a dangerous escalation and continue the cycle of violence, anger and radicalization in the area.

Palestinian protester stands near burning tires
during clashes with Israeli police in East Jerusalem
Photo is by Ammar Awad/Reuters and appeared in The Guardian 

The Netanyahu government had announced that it will go ahead with the construction of 1,000 settler units in East Jerusalem despite widespread condemnation of the action.  As reported in The Guardian on October 27, The Israeli government is to advance construction plans for 1,000 housing units to be built in parts of Jerusalem that Palestinians demand for their future state.  The move, revealed by the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu,, is the first in what is expected to be a series of announcements .... on new settlement construction work in East Jerusalem and on the occupied West Bank.  It comes despite a warning from the US this month that continued construction would “poison the atmosphere” and distance Israel from even its closest allies...The announcement was immediately condemned by the finance minister, Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid party, who warned that it would damage US-Israeli relations, which are already at a low ebb. Last week, the White House refused the Israeli defence minister’s requests to meet several top national security aides. 

Al Jazeera traces the escalating tensions back to this summer:  Tensions in Jerusalem had risen to a boiling point over the summer, when Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and burned alive by Israelis, who said they were avenging the murder of three Israeli teenagers near Hebron.  Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem erupted in protests, prompting an Israeli crackdown. At the same time, angry crowds of Israelis marched through the city’s streets demanding revenge.  At least 760 Palestinians, including 260 children, were arrested in the security sweeps that followed, according to the Israeli news outlet Haaretz. “The mass arrests in Jerusalem … the settlers’ invasion of Arab neighborhoods with the support of the government and courts … all this will have a price,” Israeli columnist Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz on Thursday. Between 1967 and 2013, he wrote, Israel revoked the residence status — or the identification card that allows Palestinians to live in East Jerusalem — of over 14,000 Palestinians, “with strange claims that don’t apply to any of its Jewish residents. Isn’t that apartheid?”

Hong Kong
The Hong Kong protests have been pushed off the front page but they are still going on.  Peter Thal Larsen in an October 28 op-ed blog for Reuters writes of the "polite impasse" on the streets of Hong Kong:  The three-lane highway that passes in front of Hong Kong’s central government buildings has been transformed into an impromptu city-centre campsite. Wandering between the hundreds of numbered, multicoloured tents on Harcourt Road feels more like attending a nerdy music festival than a hotbed of political agitation....Hong Kong’s large financial district has mostly continued to operate as normal....The protesters have...defied predictions that they would quickly lose interest. The government’s clumsy and sometimes heavy-handed attempts to end the protests have helped. The use of tear gas; the decision to call and then cancel talks with student leaders; the policemen caught on film beating up a handcuffed protester – all have spurred crowds to return to the streets.  The other surprise is that China has not ordered a crackdown. ...Beijing’s relative tolerance does not mean it is prepared to meet the movement’s requests, however. China has stuck to the proposed system for selecting Hong Kong’s chief executive that ignited the protests in the first place. 

Ebola
As the US and Canada sort out protective gear, medical procedures, quarantines, and visas to reduce the likelihood of Ebola infections here, West Africa's battle against the epidemic continues in the face of a massive overload of their medical systems.  The World Health Organization (WHO) published figures on Friday, October 31, showing 4,951 people have died of Ebola out of a total of 13,567 reported cases.  WHO acknowledges that the official figures are under-reported.  Ebola has wiped out whole villages in Sierra Leone and may have caused many more deaths than the nearly 5,000 official global toll, a senior coordinator of the medical aid group MSF [Doctors Without Borders] said Friday. "The WHO says there is a correction factor of 2.5, so maybe it is 2.5 times higher and maybe that is not far from the truth. It could be 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000," said [Rony] Zachariah.  "You have one nurse for 10,000 people and then you lose 10, 11, 12 nurses. How is the health system going to work?"  [AFP, Nov. 1]

Links/In Brief - The US Midterm Elections
The US midterm elections will be held Tuesday, November 4.  Control of the US Senate is up for grabs and, with it, control of the Federal courts and ambassadorial nominations.  Republicans have held up confirmation of Obama nominations to these posts by a variety of procedural motions in spite of the filibuster reform of November 2013.

The Guardian 's take on the election is given in an October 31 article: Republicans are entering the final stretch of the midterm election campaign convinced they stand poised to retake control of the Senate and possibly even extend their majority in the House of Representatives to the largest enjoyed by the party since 1928.  For me, this is an ominous thought.  The last time the Republicans held that large a majority in the House, they presided over the Great Depression.

If, as many predict, the Republicans do take control of the Senate for the next session of Congress, Democrats will make a major push to confirm as many of the 156 pending nominations as they can in the lame duck session. [Daily Kos, Oct. 23]

Republican dirty tricks and voter suppression continue unabated: Grimes Files for Injunction Against McConnell for Illegal Voter Suppression/Intimidation [Daily Kos, Oct 31]

How can Democrats hold the Senate? [The Left Bank Cafe, Oct. 6]

The World Series, Halloween, and the Election [The Left Bank Cafe, Oct. 30]

Sunday Roundup - September 14, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media. Today we look at Islamic State, Gaza, Texas politics, and in brief, the latest greenhouse gas data and the Scottish independence vote. 

Islamic State
The drums of perpetual war are beating again on the banks of the Potomac.  Without a Congressional vote or debate, American military might is being thrown at Islamic State (aka ISIS) in the midst of the sectarian war that has been gripping the Middle East.  On September 9, Sarah Lazare at Commondreams.org reported on a recently released study on the strange parallel between the arming of Islamic State and al Qaeda.  The Islamic State (IS) is now in possession of lethal weapons formerly owned by so-called "moderate" Syrian rebels, as well as large quantities of arms produced in the United States, a new report reveals.  The study — conducted by Conflict Armament Research, a research organization that tracks weapons proliferation in war zones — documents arms and ammunition captured by Kurdish People's Protection Units and Peshmerga forces from IS in Iraq and Syria from from mid-June to early August 2014...."This is one more piece of evidence of why military solutions have devastating consequences in the immediate and long terms," said Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at Institute for Policy Studies, in an interview with Common Dreams. "We see an example of the consequences of the over-arming of the region if we look back at Afghanistan in the 1980s during the anti-Soviet War when the U.S. provided stinger missiles that can bring down aircraft to mujahedin guerrillas who morphed into al Qaeda."  We have 13 years of experience in knowing what doesn't work in these conflicts and here we are doing it again.

There are other options short of war to weaken ISIS. The above-quoted Phyllis Bennis wrote in The Progressive on September 10: We have to recognize that military attacks are not only wrong in a host of ways (illegal in international law, immoral because of civilian casualties, a distraction from vitally needed diplomacy) but also that those strikes are making real solutions impossible....weakening ISIS requires ending the support it relies on from tribal leaders, military figures, and ordinary Iraqi Sunnis.   Bennis then presents six steps short of war to accomplish this:  

• Stop the airstrikes. 
• Make real the commitment for “No boots on the ground.”  
• Organize a real diplomatic partnership to deal with ISIS. Even though the U.S. is carrying out airstrikes and deploying new troops in Iraq, everyone agrees there is no military solution. 
• Initiate a new search for broader diplomatic solutions in the United Nations. That means working to build a real coalition aimed at using diplomatic and financial pressures, not military strikes, at the international level in both Iraq and Syria.
• Push the UN...to restart real negotiations on ending the civil war in Syria. That means everyone involved needs to be at the table.
• Massively increase US humanitarian contributions to U.N. agencies for the now millions of refugees and IDPs in and from both Syria and Iraq.

Related

As usual in these poorly thought-out rushes to military action, some of the best analysis comes from The Nation.  Here are links to a trio of relevant articles.

Phyllis Bennis, "The Speech on Diplomacy That Obama Should Have Given Last Night"

Zoe Carpenter, "Is the War on ISIS Illegal?"

William Grieder, "Obama’s Long War in the Middle East"

Gaza

As Egypt gets ready to host a donor conference for the devastated enclave of Gaza on October 12, Noam Chomsky's September 9 article for TomDispatch.com "Ceasefires in Which Violations Never Cease - What’s Next for Israel, Hamas, and Gaza?" should be required reading for every pundit on the planet and for anyone wanting to understand the situation in Gaza.  Tom Englehardt's introduction makes clear that if what Israel wanted to accomplish in Operation Protective Edge was to destroy support for Hamas, they failed miserably.  Englehardt quotes a Palestinian poll taken just before the current ceasefire went into effect:  If new presidential elections are held today and only two [candidates] were nominated, [the Hamas candidate] Haniyeh, for the first time since we have started asking about his popularity about eight years ago, would receive a majority of 61% and Abbas would receive 32%.  

Chomsky notes the history of these ceasefires whose terms have basically remained the same since Hamas came to power in the 2006 elections.  The regular pattern is for Israel, then, to disregard whatever agreement is in place, while Hamas observes it -- as Israel has officially recognized -- until a sharp increase in Israeli violence elicits a Hamas response, followed by even fiercer brutality. These escalations, which amount to shooting fish in a pond, are called "mowing the lawn" in Israeli parlance. The most recent was more accurately described as "removing the topsoil" by a senior U.S. military officer, appalled by the practices of the self-described "most moral army in the world."  Chomsky has much to say about Israel's disengagement from Gaza in 2005, the world reaction to the internationally monitored 2006 elections that brought Hamas to power in Gaza and the West Bank, Operations Cast Lead and Pillar of Defense, the recently concluded Operation Protective Edge, and the latest Israeli land grab in the West Bank.  On the land grab: As Operation Protective Edge ended, Israel announced its largest appropriation of West Bank land in 30 years, almost 1,000 acres.  Israel Radio reported that the takeover was in response to the killing of the three Jewish teenagers by "Hamas militants." A Palestinian boy was burned to death in retaliation for the murder, but no Israeli land was handed to Palestinians, nor was there any reaction when an Israeli soldier murdered 10-year-old Khalil Anati on a quiet street in a refugee camp near Hebron on August 10th, while the most moral army in the world was smashing Gaza to bits, and then drove away in his jeep as the child bled to death. 

Quoting Israeli scholars, journalists, military and political leaders, Chomsky concludes that a viable two-state solution is not a strong consideration in Israeli political circles: The realistic alternative to a two-state settlement is that Israel will continue to carry forward the plans it has been implementing for years, taking over whatever is of value to it in the West Bank, while avoiding Palestinian population concentrations and removing Palestinians from the areas it is integrating into Israel...Gaza will likely remain under its usual harsh siege, separated from the West Bank.  And the Syrian Golan Heights -- like Jerusalem, annexed in violation of Security Council orders -- will quietly become part of Greater Israel.  In the meantime, West Bank Palestinians will be contained in unviable cantons, with special accommodation for elites in standard neocolonial style.....For a century, the Zionist colonization of Palestine has proceeded primarily on the pragmatic principle of the quiet establishment of facts on the ground, which the world was to ultimately come to accept.  It has been a highly successful policy.  There is every reason to expect it to persist as long as the United States provides the necessary military, economic, diplomatic, and ideological support.  For those concerned with the rights of the brutalized Palestinians, there can be no higher priority than working to change U.S. policies, not an idle dream by any means.

Related
For a discussion of what has happened to Palestinians politically and territorially, see "The Map: A Palestinian Nation Thwarted & Speaking Truth to Power" - Informed Comment (reprinted July 13, 2014)

Map is from Friends of Sabeel - North America website
and Informed Comment

Lone Star Politics
Over the past year or so, there have been various surges of optimism over the possibility of Democrats picking up a governorship or a US Senate seat now held by a Republican in a red state. The latest bit of unfounded optimism is the Kansas Senate race.  The Democrat is dropping out of the race and Democrats are supporting the independent.  Whether this last bit of optimism pans out or not, we'll have to see.  Earlier would-be upsets are now long forgotten and Democrats are trying desperately to hold onto Senate seats in swing states.  One of the early examples of this unfounded optimism was in the Texas governor's race.  As Rolling Stone journalist Mark Binelli noted in a July article: This was supposed to be the year Texas turned blue, or at least purple, the year female and Hispanic voters turned out in droves and carried Democrat state Sen. Wendy Davis to the governor's mansion. Battleground Texas, a group founded last year with the bold goal of transforming Texas into a swing state, targeted the swelling Latino population, which by 2020 is projected to overtake the white population of Texas....By Memorial Day, however, the Battleground Texas narrative, at least in this election cycle, had begun to look like Daily Kos fan fiction. Davis was trailing Abbott by 14 points. Meanwhile, back in her old Fort Worth Senate district, a Tea Party Republican named Konni Burton seems well-placed to win Davis' old seat in the fall.  The Abbott lead over Davis is still hovering in low to mid double digits and our second most populous state looks like it will remain "red.  The article "Lone Star Crazy: How Right-Wing Extremists Took Over Texas" explains how Texas fell "into the hands of gun nuts, border-sealers and talk-radio charlatans":  After nearly six years of pumping out cynical horror stories involving our nefarious president and a Washington bureaucracy run amok, the right-wing fear machine has managed to reduce its target audience to a quivering state of waking nightmare, jumping at shadows.  Binelli sees a parallel with the 1960's.  In the years after JFK's murder, Dallas was known as the City of Hate, an image which the city struggled for years to erase.  Nowadays, the City of Hate era has grown so distant that hate has been allowed to return as a winning campaign slogan in Texas. ...Then as now, the pot was stirred by reactionary preachers..., wealthy string-pullers.., political opportunists...and organized interest groups.  

Links/In Brief
Scotland
With less than a week until Scotland votes on independence from the UK on September 18, the most recent polls are saying that it is too close to call.  [The Guardian, Sep 12]

If the vote is for independence, a whole slew of constitutional questions arise.  And the exit of the overwhelmingly Labour Scottish MP's from Westminster has led to a (perhaps ill-founded) hope among Tories that Scottish independence will consign the rest of the UK to permanent Conservative government.  [The New Statesman, Feb 20]

Greenhouse Gases
Surging carbon dioxide levels have pushed greenhouse gases to record highs in the atmosphere, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has said.  Concentrations of carbon dioxide, the major cause of global warming, increased at their fastest rate for 30 years in 2013, despite warnings from the world’s scientists of the need to cut emissions to halt temperature rises. [The Guardian, Sep 9]

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.

============================================================

"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)

============================================================

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]

Related

Gaza war destruction 'will take 20 years to rebuild'[The Telegraph, August 30]

Israeli court issues verdict in favor of Ship to Gaza Sweden - Israel must return hijacked ship and pay legal expenses [Ship to Gaza press release, August 31]

Sunday Roundup - July 27, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media. Today we look at Gaza, the US's Israel policy, and, in brief, Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine and Russia.

"Today's attack underscores the imperative for the killing to stop and to stop now." 

- Ban Ki Moon after the Israeli shelling of a UN refugee shelter on Thursday.  

Gaza
The Israeli assault against Gaza continued unabated until Saturday morning.  A 12-hour ceasefire went into effect July 26 after Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary pause in the fighting.  Israel had come under widespread criticism for its rejection of a seven-day humanitarian ceasefire brokered  by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Hamas' regional proxies.  The Palestinian death toll in Gaza is now over 1000, the great majority of whom are civilians.  More than 5000 have been wounded.  One can only pray that the horrific slaughter taking place in Gaza will be ended permanently, that the devastating blockade that has crippled Gaza for the past seven years will be ended, and that the world community will send the necessary humanitarian aid to the beleaguered enclave to help it rebuild from this and past Israeli attacks.

Gaza Ceasefire Reveals Full Extent of Israeli Destruction [The Guardian, July 26]

Palestinian women react to the destruction in Beit Hanuon,
northern Gaza Strip, during the ceasefire.
Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images
[Image appeared in The Guardian]

Thousands of people in Gaza have ventured out from homes and shelters during a 12-hour ceasefire to find that whole streets and neighbourhoods have been destroyed in the last week.  Shortly before the ceasefire took effect, at least 18 members of the al-Najar family, including many children, were killed in an air strike on Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip. The family had recently gone there to escape fighting in a nearby village, a Palestinian health official said.  As the Palestinian death toll in the 19-day-long conflict topped 1,000, diplomatic efforts to forge a longer ceasefire continued in Paris. Foreign ministers from seven nations – the US, France, Britain, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Qatar – called for an extension of the truce.

Statement of UN High Commissioner on Human Rights
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Wednesday that Israel’s military actions are responsible for the death of a child every hour in recent days and observed, “Respect for the right to life of civilians, including children, should be a foremost consideration. Not abiding by these principles may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” That is, in international law, Israel’s pretext for indiscriminate bombing– that Hamas hides out among non-combatants– is unacceptable. Israel is the occupying power in Gaza and has a duty to minimize non-combatant death, which it clearly is not doing... [Informed Comment, July 24]

Massacre at UN School/Refugee Shelter

The majority of those injured in the attack on the school
were women and children. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP
Image appeared in The Guardian

As noted by Al Jazeera:  More than 140,000 Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza by the fighting, many of them seeking shelter in buildings run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.  Juan Cole in his Informed Comment blog on July 25 wrote:   A new element entered the current Gaza war on Thursday, as Israel shelled a UN school full of displaced persons taking refuge there and  large protests broke out in the Palestinian West Bank. The shelling of the UNRWA school, which killed 15 and injured 200, was a war crime. The UN had given the school’s coordinates to the Israelis, so they knew it was a school and was holding displaced persons.  The UN, when informed it would be shelled, asked for more time to evacuate people but were denied it.  The attack occurred hours after the UN had warned that Israel's actions in the Palestinian enclave could constitute war crimes.  For more on the Israeli shelling of the refugee shelter, see The Guardian July 24 article.

Israel Rejects Seven-Day Humanitarian Ceasefire Proposal
World reaction to the humanitarian disaster is growing - especially after the Israeli shelling of the UN school serving as a center for displaced persons and after Israel rejected a seven-day humanitarian cease-fire brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Hamas' regional proxies.  Kerry is remaining in the Middle East for a few more days to attempt to narrow the differences between Hamas and the Israeli government for achieving a cease-fire.  For more see the Al Jazeera, July 25 article.

Palestinian West Bank Protests and Friday Israeli strikes in Gaza

On Friday, Israeli strikes on 30 houses [in Gaza] killed another 19 people, including the head of media operations for Hamas ally Islamic Jihad and his son.  [Al Jazeera, July 25]

Demonstrations in the West Bank against the Israeli assault has resulted in the killing of 6 Palestinians.  In the occupied West Bank, where U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas governs in uneasy coordination with Israel, some 10,000 demonstrators marched in solidarity with Gaza overnight Thursday – a scale recalling mass revolts of the past. Protesters surged against an Israeli army checkpoint, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, and Palestinian medics said one was shot dead and 200 wounded when troops opened fire.  The next day, medics said five Palestinians were killed in separate incidents near the West Bank cities of Nablus and Hebron, including one shooting that witnesses blamed on an apparent Jewish settler. [Al Jazeera, July 25]

The United States' Morally Bankrupt Israel Policy
Stephen Walt, Professor of International Affairs at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, writes in a July 22 article at the Huffington Post:  Israel is [again] using weapons provided by U.S. taxpayers to bombard the captive and impoverished Palestinians in Gaza...As usual, the U.S. government is siding with Israel, even though most American leaders understand Israel instigated the latest round of violence, is not acting with restraint, and that its actions make Washington look callous and hypocritical in the eyes of most of the world...This Orwellian situation is eloquent testimony to the continued political clout of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and the other hardline elements of the Israel lobby. There is no other plausible explanation for the supine behavior of the U.S. Congress...or the shallow hypocrisy of the Obama administration...The explanation for America's impotent and morally bankrupt policy is the political clout of the Israel lobby.  Barack Obama knows that if he were to side with the Palestinians in Gaza or criticize Israel's actions in any way, he would face a firestorm of criticism from the lobby and his chances of getting Congressional approval for a deal with Iran would evaporate.  

Walt notes that the Israeli hard-line lobby isn't as powerful as it once was.  Nevertheless, it is still able to keep roughly $3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel flowing each year; it can still prevent U.S. presidents from putting meaningful pressure on Israel; and it can still get the U.S. to wield its veto whenever a resolution criticizing Israel's actions is floated in the U.N. Security Council. This situation explains why the Obama administration made zero progress toward "two states for two peoples": if Israel gets generous U.S. support no matter what it does, why should its leaders pay any attention to Washington's requests? 

Iraq

Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric urged political leaders on Friday to refrain from clinging to their posts - an apparent reference to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has defied demands that he step aside...Maliki has come under mounting pressure since Sunni militants led by the hardline Islamic State swept across northern Iraq last month and seized vast swathes of territory, posing the biggest challenge to Maliki's Shi'ite-led government since U.S. forces withdrew in 2011.  Critics say Maliki is a divisive figure whose alienation of Sunnis has fueled sectarian hatred and played into the hands of the insurgents, who have reached to within 70 km of the capital Baghdad. [Reuters, July 25]

Syria
Fighters from al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State killed at least 50 Syrian army soldiers...on Friday outside the northern city of Raqqa, as the radicals escalated their attacks on government forces, a monitoring group said...Islamic State...has advanced in Syria and taken over swaths of territory in neighboring Iraq in what it has described as a bid to establish an Islamic caliphate...Since its lightning advance in Iraq last month, the group has confronted government forces in Syria more frequently whilst continuing to attack rival rebel groups fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad. [Reuters, July 25]

Ukraine and Russia
Russia reacted angrily on Saturday [July 26]to additional sanctions imposed by the European Union over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis, saying they would hamper cooperation on security issues and undermine the fight against terrorism and organized crime.  The 28-nation EU reached an outline agreement on Friday to impose economic sanctions on Russia...The EU also imposed travel bans and asset freezes on the chiefs of Russia's FSB security service and foreign intelligence service and a number of other top Russian officials.  [Reuters, July 26]

Sunday Roundup - July 13, 2014

This is the fourth of four special editions of The Sunday Roundup.  Today we continue to look at the historical roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, covering the period from 2000 to 2012.

Seven years of the Oslo Process failed to achieve the creation of a Palestinian state. Israel still occupied the West Bank and Gaza.  Israeli settlements were being built in the Occupied Territories. Following a visit to the Temple Mount by right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon in September 2000, fighting erupted between Muslims and Israeli police.

2000-2005: The Second Intifada

September 2000 - Beginning of the Second Intifada - a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence.

January 21-27, 2001 - The Taba Summit negotiations between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat comes close to achieving a solution. The talks were halted by the politics of the Israeli elections and the changeover in leadership in the US.

February 2001 - Likud candidate Ariel Sharon is elected Prime Minister of Israel. Sharon refuses to negotiate with the Palestinians on the principles of either the Taba Summit or the Oslo Accords.

March 2002 - Arab League Summit in Beirut. Arab Peace Initiative calls for Israel to withdraw its forces from all the Occupied Territories, including the Golan Heights, to recognize "an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as a "just solution" for the Palestinian refugees. In exchange the Arab states affirmed that they would recognize the state of Israel, consider the Arab-Israeli conflict over and establish "normal relations" with Israel.

March 2002 - 15 suicide attacks against Israeli targets; overall during March 2002, 138 Israelis and 238 Palestinians were killed.

March 27, 2002 - Suicide attack on Park Hotel in Netanya kills 30.

March 29, 2002 to May 10, 2002- Sparked by the suicide attack in Netanya, Israelis launch "Operation Defensive Shield", an offensive into Palestinian territory on March 29.

• The operation resulted in the deaths of 30 Israeli soldiers and 497 Palestinians.
• Over $361 million worth of damage was done to Palestinian infrastructure and institutions, $158 million of which came from the aerial bombardment and destruction of houses in Nablus and Jenin.

June 2002 - Israelis begin construction of the West Bank Wall. Upon completion, the barrier's total length will be approximately 700 kilometres. A 2004 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice called "the construction of the wall, and its associated régime...contrary to international law".

2003 - Truce between Palestinians and Israelis leads to the Aqaba summit of May 2003 in which Israel endorsed the "Roadmap for Peace" put forth by the United States, European Union, and Russia.

March 19, 2003 - Arafat appoints Mahmoud Abbas as Prime Minister

June 6, 2004 - Gaza disengagement originally proposed by Ariel Sharon at the end of 2003 is adopted by the Israeli government.

November 2004 - Yasser Araft dies.

January 2005 - Mahmoud Abbas is elected President of the Palestinian National Authority.

August 2005 - Israeli diesngagement from Gaza is effected, including the relocation of all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

2006 - 2012: The Israel-Gaza Conflict

January 25, 2006 - Hamas wins a majority on the Palestinian Legislative Council.

• The United States and some European countries cut off funds to the Hamas and the Palestinian Authority insisting that the Hamas must recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace pacts.
• Israel refused to negotiate with Hamas, since Hamas did not renounce its beliefs that Israel has no right to exist and that the entire State of Israel is an illegal occupation

Summer 2006 - Israel-Gaza conflict begins.

March 2007- Hamas and Fatah formed a Palestinian authority national unity government headed by Ismail Haniya.

June, 2007 - Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in the course of the Battle of Gaza; Fatah maintains control of the West Bank. Israel and Egypt begin the air, land, and sea blockade of Gaza.

June 2008 - Israel-Hamas agree to a six-month truce

December 19, 2008 - Israel-Hamas Truce expires.

The Gaza War: December 27, 2008 - January 18, 2009

December 27, 2008 - Gaza War begins. Israel attacks Gaza with an intense bombardment of police, military and civilian structures in Gaza. Hamas intensifies its rocket attacks.

January 3, 2009 - Israeli ground offensive into Gaza begins.

January 18, 2009 - Israel and Hamas declare cease fires. Israeli troops withdraw on January 21.

Impact of the Gaza War

• The conflict resulted in 1,417 Palestinian (65% civilian) and 13 Israeli deaths (4 from friendly fire).
• Early estimates by independent contractors in Gaza say that Gaza lost nearly $2 billion in assets. The Israeli Defense Forces destroyed or severely damaged as many as 4000 homes, 600–700 factories, small industries, workshops and business enterprises, 24 mosques, 31 security compounds, and 10 water or sewage lines.
• The World Health Organization said that 34 health facilities (8 hospitals and 26 primary health care clinics) were damaged
• The UN reported that over 50 United Nations facilities sustained damage.
• A satellite-based damage assessment of the Gaza Strip by the United Nations revealed 2,692 destroyed and severely damaged buildings, 220 impact craters on roads and bridges, 714 impact craters on open ground or cultivated land, 187 greenhouses completely destroyed or severely damaged and 2,232 hectares (22.32 km²) of demolished zones targeted by IDF bulldozers, tanks and phosphorus shelling.
• In September 2009, a UN special mission, headed by the South African Justice Richard Goldstone, produced a report accusing both Palestinian militants and the IDF of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, and recommended bringing those responsible to justice.
• The United Nations Human Rights Council ordered Israel to conduct various repairs of the damages. On September 21, 2012, the United Nations Human Rights Council concluded that 75% of civilian homes destroyed in the attack were not rebuilt.

November 25, 2009 - Israel imposed a 10-month construction freeze on all of its settlements in the West Bank. Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories are almost universally considered illegitimate and in violation of international law.

September 2, 2010 - United States launched direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in Washington. When the Israeli partial moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank expired and was not renewed, the Palestinians left the negotiations.

September 2011 the Palestinian Authority led a diplomatic campaign aimed at getting recognition of the State of Palestine within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. On September 23 President Mahmoud Abbas submitted a request to recognize the State of Palestine as the 194th UN member to the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The Security Council has yet to vote on it.

October 2011 - Israel and Hamas prisoner exchange. The captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit would be released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian and Arab-Israeli prisoners.

Gaza Incursion of 2012

Nov 14, 2012 - Preceded by a period of mutual Israeli–Palestinian responsive attacks, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation was officially launched against the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip with the assassination of Ahmed Jabari, chief of the Gaza military wing of Hamas.

Nov 21, 2012 - A ceasefire mediated by Egypt was announced.

Impact of the Gaza Incursion of 2012

• 4 Israeli civilians and 2 soldiers were killed by Palestinian rockets.
• 174 Palestinians in total died, 107 of them civilians (6 civilians may have been killed by Palestinian armed groups firing rockets from Gaza)
• The IDF destroyed 124 (and partially damaged 2050) homes in Gaza and damaged or destroyed 52 places of worship, 25 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), 97 schools, 15 health institutions, 14 journalist premises, 8 police stations, 16 government buildings, and 11 political sites. Fifteen factories and 192 trade shops were damaged or destroyed. Twelve water wells as well as agricultural lands were destroyed.

November 29, 2012 - The Palestinian Authority applied for admission as a United Nations non-member state. Hamas also backed the motion. The draft resolution was passed on November 29, 2012 by a vote of 138 to 9, with 41 abstentions.

References
Wikipedia articles on the topics related to Israeli-Palestinian conflict are the major source for these posts. The articles on Palestine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were particularly helpful.