Sunday Roundup - August 3, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US corporate mainstream media. Today we look at Gaza, Ukraine, Russia, and US gun laws. 

“Last night, children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a UN-designated shelter in Gaza. Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced."

- UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Kahenbuhl, 

after the Israeli shelling of a sixth UN refugee shelter Wednesday

Gaza
After two brief lulls in the fighting in the past week, Israel's siege of Gaza continued. Palestinian civilian casualties continue to rise and the devastating destruction of Gaza by Israeli military strikes continues. As of Saturday, August 2, the Palestinian death toll now exceeds 1600; more than 8300 have been wounded. UN sources estimate 80 percent of the Palestinian dead - more than 1200 - are civilians.  300 of the dead are children.  Israeli deaths stand at 67, including 64 soldiers and 3 civilians. 

Monday - Missiles...struck several sites in Gaza, including a park inside a refugee camp and an outpatient building of the strip's largest hospital, disrupting a relative lull at the start of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday. The IDF denied responsibility.  Hamas denied it had fired any rockets in the area and said it was "categorically an airstrike by Israel". It said it had collected schrapnel from the scene that it could prove was from an Israeli munition.  Medics said that an Israeli missile also hit a building, believed to be an outpatient clinic, close to the main gate of Shifa hospital, the same hospital where the victims of the playground strike were taken.  [Al Jazeera, July 29]

Tuesday - Israel broadened its assault on Gaza on Tuesday, wrecking the region's only power plant and killing more than 125 Palestinians.  Barrages "destroyed Hamas's media offices, the home of a top leader and what Palestinians said was a devastating hit on the only electricity plant," The New York Times reports....With Tuesday's bombings, which the Guardian described as "the most relentless and widespread" of the three-week-old conflict, the Palestinian death toll has exceeded 1,200. The shelling of the power plant, which Palestinian officials described as taking a devastating hit, will bring additional hardship. The lack of electricity will make existing problems with water and sewage far worse. "We need at least one year to repair the power plant, the turbines, the fuel tanks and the control room," Fathi Sheik Khalil of the Gaza energy authority told the Guardian. "Everything was burned."  [NPR, July 29]  The lack of electricity also boosts the need for increased fuel in Gaza to power water and sewage pumps and run backup generators, the U.N. said. Hospitals are especially vulnerable to electricity and water cuts as they try to cope with the influx of the injured and dead in addition to medical supply shortages.  Ninety percent of the population is without electricity, sharply affecting water and sanitation services, with only 5 percent of Gaza’s water fit for drinking. This has raised fears of an imminent public health crisis, according to the United Nations...And without electricity, communication with the outside world for many Palestinians in Gaza has slowed to a trickle....Some 20 percent of Gaza’s population has been internally displaced by the crisis. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is housing about 220,000 of them, according to Chris McGrath, its Washington liaison. But it’s unclear how much more the agency can do. “We’re stretched thin, and our supplies are running out,” he said. “There’s very little space left in our facilities.” [Al Jazeera, August 2]

Aftermath of the strike on a UN school in Gaza City.
Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images
Image appeared in The Guardian

Wednesday - At least 19 Palestinians were killed and about 90 injured early on Wednesday when a UN school sheltering displaced people was hit by shells during a second night of relentless bombardment that followed an Israeli warning of a protracted military campaign.  Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, condemned “in in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces”.  He said in a statement: “Last night, children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a UN-designated shelter in Gaza. Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced." [The Guardian, July 30]

A cease fire failed after just several hours on Friday morning.  The West blames Hamas for the collapse of the cease fire and, as usual, says little about the gross overreaction by the Israeli military.  The current cause for the intensification of the assault against Gaza is a missing Israeli soldier that Israelis believe was captured by Hamas.   Around 100 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in Rafah since fighting restarted following the collapse of an internationally brokered ceasefire Friday morning. At least a dozen have been killed elsewhere in Gaza and scores wounded. Health officials said the main hospital in Rafah had to be evacuated because of shelling on Friday afternoon....Early on Saturday, the Hamas military wing said in a statement on its website that it was "not aware until this moment of a missing soldier or his whereabouts or the circumstances of his disappearance". The group said it believed the soldier might have been killed in a clash with Hamas fighters about an hour before the start of the ceasefire...The United States and the United Nations supported Israeli accounts that Hamas had taken advantage of the 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire to ambush IDF soldiers near the entrance to a tunnel outside Rafah, on the southern end of the Gaza Strip on the Egyptian border, killing two soldiers at the same time as seizing Goldin.  [The Guardian, August 2]
Update:  Israel confirmed on Saturday August 2 that the soldier presumed captured had been killed in action. 

Why the Ceasefires Aren't Working
International efforts to secure a cease fire in the current conflict have failed repeatedly.  The only way to secure a lasting cease fire is to end the blockade on Gaza and for the Israeli troops to return home.  This is something that Israel, Egypt and the West so far have refused to consider.  The world has rightly condemned the Hamas rocket attacks into Israel, which have killed 35 Israelis in the past 10 years.  However, the rocket attacks, according to Britain Eakin, a symptom of deeper issues that must be addressed as part of a comprehensive peace process. In that regard, any cease-fire that does not contain provisions to end the blockade will merely be a Band-Aid.  In an opinion piece for Al Jazeera, Eakin quotes Chris McGrath, the UNWRA liaison in Washington.  “The situation [in Gaza] was bleak before this conflict, and if something is not done to address those longer-term challenges,” McGrath cautioned, “conflict is likely to flare up again in the future...Is Gaza going to be a place where people can actually live in 2020?” McGrath asked. “The answer under current circumstances is no.”  Eakin notes, Hamas has recently signaled its willingness to consider Israel’s legitimate security concerns. It put forth conditions for a 10-year truce that would allow for international monitors in areas of concern for Israel, including at border crossings, along the borders and at Gaza’s yet-to-be developed airport and seaport. Now is the time for cooler heads to prevail. Palestinians, like Israelis, deserve to live in peace and security and must be allowed to develop their economy. Any cease-fire that does not treat the parties equally will fall far short of addressing the legitimate security needs of both people — and consequently won’t be sustainable.

Links
The Nation, "Five Israeli Talking Points on Gaza - Debunked" - a good article to keep in front of you as you watch network and cable news "coverage".

Americans for Peace Now's  Alert and Petition Supporting John Kerry's Efforts to Obtain A Ceasefire

Hamas conditions for a 10-year truce with Israel


Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko ...announced a unilateral cease-fire in a 20 km radius of the crash site of the MH17 flight in a telephone conversation with the PMs of Netherlands and Australia, according to his press-service.  Earlier in the day [July 30] US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed Kiev was ready for a cease-fire “now,” following a meeting with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Washington. Kerry added that President Poroshenko is also ready to start talks with the militia in the southeast of the country. Russia has called on Kiev numerous times to establish a cease-fire and start talks. The local militia in the south-east offered a bilateral cease-fire last week. Kiev refused. [Russia Times, July 30]

Russia
On Tuesday, the EU and the US announced new sanctions against Russia for its support of the Ukrainian separatists.  The EU has agreed on a package of "significant" additional restrictive measures targeting Russia's finance, defense and energy sectors, said the European Council in a statement....These decisions will limit access of Russian state-owned financial institutions to EU capital markets, impose an arms embargo, establish an export ban on dual-use goods for military end users, and curtail Russian access to sensitive technologies particularly in the field of the oil sector, according to the statement....Following its European allies, Obama announced an expansion of U.S. penalties targeting key sectors of Russia's economy.  Building on measures unveiled two weeks ago, the United States expanded its sanctions to more Russian banks and defense companies, and blocked the export of specific goods and technology to Russia's energy sector. [Xinhuanet, July 30]

Guns and Domestic Violence

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding its first-ever hearing on domestic violence and guns...Several Democrat-backed bills that aim to strengthen federal law when it comes to gun ownership and domestic abuse are languishing in Congress...The gun lobby has fought back against [Sen. Klobuchar's] bill...But not all gun-owners are siding with the NRA to fight these stricter gun controls. "I am a gun owner. I was shot and left for dead by my own gun," says Christy Martin, a former championship boxer whose ex-husband was sentenced in 2012 to 25 years in prison for attempting to murder her with a firearm....Elvin Daniel is a gun-owner and self-described NRA member who is testifying at the hearing in support of efforts to curb gun ownership for stalkers and abusers. He accuses the NRA of employing "a scare tactic" to prevent Klobuchar's bill from advancing. His sister was shot and killed by her estranged husband in 2012. [Mother Jones, July 30]

The Immigration Debate: The Emergency at the Border

Comprehensive immigration reform is dead.  There will be no action on this until Democrats regain control of Congress - an impossibility in the upcoming midterm elections given the gerrymandered and "safe" House districts. Only an overwhelming Democratic victory with strong Congressional "coat-tails" in the 2016 presidential race will change the composition of the House.  Otherwise, we'll need to wait until after the 2020 census and hope Democrats at least regain control of state legislatures in swing states.

Let's admit it.  The Republican stance on immigration is driven by the same political calculation that led to the voter suppression laws passed in Republican-controlled states.  People of color, with good reason, usually do not vote for Republican candidates.  Republicans are in the minority in terms of registered voters.  They cannot win future elections if the white male portion of the electorate dwindles significantly.  Throw in a bone to those in the Republican base that are racist and the development of their position becomes clear.  Republicans would rather continue in power and continue to represent the wealthy and corporate interests than do what is right.  Contrast this with Lyndon Johnson's enactment of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts in the mid-1960's.  He did the right thing in spite of the knowledge that, in his words, "we [Democrats] have just lost the South."

The most pressing immigration issue right now is the large number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the United States.  Conditions in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Salvador are driving this. The flow of children seeking refuge has overwhelmed the ability of border officials to deal with it.  The Republicans are making much of it - the former half-term governor of Alaska even calling for President Obama's impeachment.

Unaccompanied immigrant children in a holding cell in Texas
(Image appeared on ThinkProgress website)

Data from the Pew Research Center for the 20 month period between October 1,2012 and May 31, 2014 shows that more than 85,000 unaccompanied minors have been apprehended at the US-Mexico border. The best analysis of the crisis I've seen is the July 24 article by Alice Speri on the VICE News Website. Speri correctly notes that the unaccompanied minors crisis is not really about border enforcement.  It's about managing an emergency refugee flow. "Most of these minors — as well as most of the families also crossing the border, usually mothers with young children — are arriving through Mexico from other Central American countries, and especially from Honduras and El Salvador, where they are fleeing poverty and some of the worst violent crime in the world."

A Federal anti-trafficking law mandates that, unlike their Mexican peers, the Central American children cannot just be turned back at the border.  The law requires that they receive temporary relocation, assistance, and an immigration hearing.  President Obama has asked for $3.7 billion to deal with the influx of minors.   Competing proposals for dealing with the situation have been made but the Republican and Democratic proposals are so far apart that there is little hope of action being taken.

Speri notes that "as the numbers of unaccompanied minors and anti-immigrant protests across the country have grown, some have called for those provisions — or 'the Central American exception,' as some critics of it have dubbed it — to be repealed."

Referring to the "downright racist and xenophobic reactions of some Americans (and politicians) towards the Central American children", Jose Antonio Vargas, an advocate for undocumented immigrants, asks, “I understand the argument that a civilized country needs to determine and protect its borders. I get that. But with all the billions of dollars and manpower that we’ve spent on the ‘border’, what exactly are we protecting ourselves from? Who exactly are we fearing?”

Mary Giovagnoli, director of the Immigration Policy Center, is also quoted in the VICE News article: “It is really imperative that we do not overreact to this situation by thinking that changing laws that are designed to protect kids is the solution. The protections are there because we know just how grave the circumstances can be....The children and families that are from Central America are coming because of extraordinary violence and threats to their wellbeing. That can’t be overlooked.”

As xenophobes and right-wing politicians mistakenly treat this as a border security issue, Pope Francis delivered a clear message for the world's political leaders: "This humanitarian emergency requires, as a first urgent measure, these children be welcomed and protected. These measures, however, will not be sufficient, unless they are accompanied by policies that inform people about the dangers of such a journey and, above all, that promote development in their countries of origin."  Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin added, "Whether they travel for reasons of poverty, violence or the hope of uniting with families on the other side of the border, it is urgent to protect and assist them, because their frailty is greater and they're defenseless, they're at the mercy of any abuse or misfortune." [Huffington Post, July 16]

Links
The Hill: "We should help children at the border, not criminalize them"

Think Progress: "Why kids are crossing the border alone to get to America"

Daily Kos: Who are you and what have you done with George Will?   (Something you probably didn't expect to hear on a Fox News show)

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]

Updates and Briefs

"It's About Humanity. Pray for Gaza."
- Selena Gomez' Instagram

Gaza
The Palestinian death toll from the Israeli attacks now exceeds 650.  An estimated two-thirds of the Palestinian dead, more than 400, are civilians.  The civilian dead include at least 147 children and 74 women.  The Israeli civilian death toll stands at 2.  In an article published today, The Irish Times reported on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights statement that "that Israel may be committing war crimes in Gaza, where its punitive house demolitions and killing of children raise the 'strong possibility' that it is violating international law."  The comments came at an emergency debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.  Ms. Pillay also condemned the indiscriminate firing of rockets and mortars by Hamas into Israel.  The Irish Times reported on John Kerry's diplomatic efforts: "In a sign of the intensity of the US diplomacy, Mr Kerry spoke to Qatari and Turkish foreign ministers after meeting [Egyptian President] Sisi for two hours, a senior US official said."  So far there is no sign of a letup in the fighting.  The article quotes a 17 year old Palestinian on the desperation of the Gazans fleeing their homes in the face of the Israeli onslaught: “Columns of people are heading west of Beit Hanoun, looking for a safe shelter. This is not war, this is annihilation."

In a companion article, Ambassador Patricia O'Brien, Ireland's representative to the meeting of the Human Rights Council, is quoted: “Irish people have been appalled by the upsurge of violence in Gaza, and especially the very high and unacceptable level of civilian casualties.  It is clear to us that neither side is paying adequate regard to the cost of their actions on innocent civilians.”   Ms O’ Brien said no ceasefire would last without a serious political effort to 'address the causes of the disastrous situation in Gaza'...The continued absence for people in Gaza of any political or economic perspective for the future is a breeding ground for extremist action.”  Would that some US politicians had the courage and moral clarity of the 57 year old UN Ambassador O'Brien and the 21 year old entertainer Selena Gomez.

Obamacare Rulings
"Two federal appeals court panels issued conflicting rulings Tuesday on whether the government could subsidize health insurance premiums for [4.5 million] Americans...By a vote of 2 to 1, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down a regulation issued by the Internal Revenue Service that authorizes the payment of premium subsidies in states that rely on the federal insurance exchange...Within hours, a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., issued a ruling that came to the opposite conclusion."  [NYTimes, July 22] The rulings will not affect consumers immediately as the Obama Administration will continue to provide subsidies until the appeals process takes place.  Despite the Obama Administration's optimism that the D.C. panel will be overruled, this has the potential to reach the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court has already weakened the Affordable Care Act considerably in its ruling that states were not required to expand Medicaid.  Just because Chief Justice Roberts voted once to uphold the law - so his court would not look like a total political shill - doesn't mean he will do it again.  Just a brief review of the rulings of this court will show that he's apparently no longer concerned about the court's credibility.

Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United and McCutcheon vs. FEC
One way to amend the constitution is for 2/3 of the states (34) to call for a Constitutional Convention to consider the amendment.  Two states (California and Vermont) have passed such resolutions to overturn the Supreme Court rulings that have removed campaign finance limits.  A third state, Illinois, is considering a similar resolution.  A total of 16 states have passed resolutions or ballot initiatives to overturn Citizens United.   The other way to amend the Constitution is for Congress, by a 2/3 vote, to send the amendment to the states for ratification.  The amendment is enacted once 3/4 of the states (38) approve it.  On July 10, in a straight party line vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve an amendment that would restore to Congress and the States the power to regulate the financing of political campaigns.  The party line vote means that it is unlikely that the amendment will be referred to the states.  So, for now, it is up to individual states to call for a Constitutional Convention. [TPM, July 10]

Iran Completes Conversion of 20% Uranium
The BBC reported on July 20: "Iran has turned all of its enriched uranium closest to the level needed to make nuclear arms into more harmless forms, the UN nuclear agency says...A new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran is observing all of its other commitments as well."  This was a major diplomatic victory for Obama's Iran policy and nary a peep was heard in the US corporate media.

Record June Temperatures
"The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for June 2014 was the highest on record for the month, at 0.72°C (1.30°F) above the 20th century average of 15.5°C (59.9°F)." [NOAA, Global Analysis - June 2014]

Sunday Roundup - July 20, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at the war against Gaza, the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, the Iran nuclear talks, the World Cup, and Nelson Mandela.

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

- Nelson Mandela

Gaza

Nelson Mandela would have been 96 on Friday.  His quote on the Palestinians came after South Africa had shaken off the shackles of apartheid.  The Palestinians remain oppressed 66 years after they were driven from their homes during the civil war for Palestine and the first Arab-Israeli War.  Their situation parallels that of black South Africans in many ways.  As was the case with South Africa, the US is late in denouncing oppression in the Occupied Territories.

Bad as the general situation of the Palestinians is, the conditions in Gaza border on the horrific.  The UN estimates that Gaza will become unlivable by 2020.  Both the EU and the US are complicit in the situation.  When Palestinian elections brought Hamas to power in the Occupied Territories in 2006, the West decided to ignore the results and isolate the elected government, Abbas took power in the West Bank, and Israel instituted a devastating blockade on Gaza that continues to this day.

The current war against Gaza marks the third time in the last 5 years that Israel has bombed and invaded Gaza.  After sabotaging the "Kerry" peace talks and after Hamas and the Palestinian Authority formed a unity government, Israel waited for an excuse to bring down the unity government and destroy Hamas.  The weakening of the unity government was aided and abetted greatly by the West's actions.  As Nathan Thrall writes in a July 17 Op-Ed for the New York Times: ...the most immediate cause of this latest war has been ignored: Israel and much of the international community placed a prohibitive set of obstacles in the way of the Palestinian “national consensus” government that was formed in early June....Israel immediately sought to undermine the reconciliation agreement by preventing Hamas leaders and Gaza residents from obtaining the two most essential benefits of the deal: the payment of salaries to 43,000 civil servants who worked for the Hamas government and continue to administer Gaza under the new one, and the easing of the suffocating border closures imposed by Israel and Egypt that bar most Gazans’ passage to the outside world.

The Israelis found their excuse for resuming hostilities against Hamas by wrongly blaming the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers on Hamas and then whipping up resentment and hatred of Palestinians to a fever pitch and assassinating seven members of Hamas.  The IDF's killing of Palestinian civilians has not yet reached the level of 2008-9 invasion ("Operation Cast Lead") but the current ground invasion was proceeded by a particularly tragic incident in which four Palestinian children were killed by Israelis warplanes.  How a nine year old playing hide and seek on a coastal road looks like a militant to one of the world's most powerful and sophisticated armed forces is incomprehensible.

And so the violence continues.  As the editors of The Nation write:  Achieving a cease-fire will be difficult, given the regional upheavals... But unless the deeper issues are addressed, the cycle [of impunity] will continue... Impunity is what happens when an aggressor fractures the norms of international law and basic human rights yet is never held to account, and so is free to commit the same crimes again and again. That is what we’re seeing now, and that is exactly what the Goldstone Report—the findings of the UN investigation of Operation Cast Lead in 2008–09—so presciently warned against. It said then that bringing to justice those who committed war crimes—Israel as well as Hamas—was perhaps the only effective way to prevent another round of violence.  It was the United States that prevented Goldstone’s recommendations from getting a fair hearing in the UN—and it’s the United States, the world’s sole superpower, the key bankroller of Israel’s military, and the unconditional defender of Israel in international forums, that bears deep responsibility for the continuation of the decades-long occupation. 

It is time for Hamas to accept the terms brokered by the international community if only to prevent additional Israeli war crimes.  Hamas' refusal to accept an unconditional cease-fire - they want the release of the 400 political prisoners recently jailed by Israel and an end to the seven-year blockade - is apparently isolating them in the eyes of the international community.  Unfortunately, much of the world is turning a blind eye to the Israeli atrocities and there is little hope that Israel will end the violence unless Hamas agrees to the unconditional cease fire.  Of course, little mention is made in the Western press of the disproportionate Israeli response to the Hamas rocket firings: As Israel pressed ahead with a ground offensive in Gaza on Saturday morning, the death toll of Palestinians rose above 300, many of them children. An early morning air strike outside a mosque in the southern city of Khan Yunis killed seven people on Saturday, including a woman, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. Other raids shortly afterwards killed another four, bringing the total death toll to 307 Palestinians and two Israelis. [The Guardian, July 19]  Most of the deaths have been civilians - estimated before the ground invasion to be on the order of 80%.

If Israelis are not held accountable for their crimes this time and if the West does not give strong support to the Palestinian unity government, there is little hope that the blockade on Gaza will ever be lifted or that Palestinians will ever have a viable homeland.  With the death tolls being what they are and with the widespread destruction of civilian facilities and homes wreaked by Israeli bombings, it seems the IDF is a more effective terror organization than Hamas.  It also seems incredible that the international community is not pressuring Israel to stop the onslaught against Gaza given that there is no effective resistance and no damage being done by Hamas rockets.  Yes, Hamas is being obstinate but all the killing is being done by Israelis.

Malaysian Airlines MH17

Tragedies continue for Malaysian Airlines.  Flight MH17 was apparently shot down by a missile in the Ukraine war zone.  Both sides in the civil war deny responsibility.  This is the kind of disaster that might have occurred over Syria had the US armed the rebels fighting the Assad regime with missile launchers as some of our stupider Congressional hawks were advising several months ago.  Deutsche Welle lists five previous incidents of civilian air craft being shot down by missiles: the 1973 downing of a Libyan passenger plane by Israeli fighter jets, the 1980 Italian airliner brought down near Sicily (no admission of responsibility), the 1983 South Korean airliner shot down by Soviet fighter jets, the 1988 Iranian Airbus shot down by missiles from a US warship in the Strait of Hormuz, and the 2003 Russian airliner shot down by an accidentally fired Ukrainian missile during a military exercise in Crimea.

Iran
Iran and six world powers have agreed to a four-month extension of negotiations on a nuclear deal with Tehran after failing to meet a July 20 deadline due to "significant gaps" between the two sides, the European Union and Iran said on Saturday....It has been clear for days that Iran and the six powers would miss the Sunday deadline to reach an accord on curbing Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for the gradual lifting of sanctions due to disagreements on a number of key issues. 

Among the issues dividing them are the permissible scope of Iran's nuclear fuel production capacity and how to address the country's suspected past atomic bomb research. [Al Jazeera, July 19]  I hope I'm wrong. but I expect the next step for Congressional hawks and AIPAC-supported Senators will be to try to sabotage the talks by passing additional sanctions against Iran.

Brazil and the World Cup
After all the talk about Neymar and Brazil and about Messi and Argentina, it was methodical, "boring" Germany that came away with the 2014 World Cup.  I watched, stunned with most of the world, as Germany dismantled Brazil in the semi-final with five goals over a span of 18 minutes in the first half. Germany went on to beat Argentina in overtime in the final and earned a #1 rating along with the World Cup. On July 14, Mother Jones ran an interview with Brazilian journalist Juliana Barbassa who discussed the soccer protests, the potential political fallout for president Dilma Roussef, and the rise of the Brazilian middle class.  Now that the World Cup is over, will the protests return?  It's very unpredictable...I do think people are more awake and aware about their rights and what's owed to them. I don't know if they're unhappy enough to change it...We haven't grown since 2010. Jobs are still plentiful. Inflation is rising, but it's not out of control. If those numbers start to change and people start to feel like they're going to the supermarket and they can't get as much as they used to—if it starts hitting people in the areas where it matters—I think that we might see more unrest.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela's 96th birthday was celebrated Friday.  The Nobel Peace Prize winner was instrumental in ending apartheid in South Africa.  The Common Dreams website published a list of Mandela quotes you were not likely to see in the mainstream press remembrances of the man.  Besides the quote above on the oppression of the Palestinians, here's another one of the dozen quotes in the article: “Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.”  

Links

Where is the outrage?  (July 16)

History of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict -  World War I - 1949, 1950-2000, 2000-2012

Where is the outrage?

Gaza devastation from Israeli bombings -
originally reported by ABC as Israelis fleeing to a bomb shelter

We have become accustomed to the one-sided reporting of the American and Western media on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The current outbreak of fighting is getting similar biased coverage and little to no reaction from most of the world's governments.  The disruptive but useless rocket launchings into Israel are being treated similarly to the devastation being wreaked by Israeli bombing raids into Gaza.  As of this morning, 204 Palestinians have been killed and 1450 wounded.  Most of these are civilians and include numerous children.  According to the UN,  1,370 homes have been destroyed, directly displacing 8,200 Palestinians, and 600,000 people were at risk of losing access to water supply.   The Israelis have suffered 1 death and "several" wounded. 


The increase in hostilities started when Israel assassinated seven Hamas members after declaring Hamas responsible for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers.  The fact that Hamas had nothing to do with the incident and that another group took credit for it apparently meant nothing to the self-appointed judge, jury and executioner.  Hamas responded to these murders by launching rockets into Israel - which. of course, gave Israel the excuse to overreact and begin the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.


Why is the world not outraged at the latest Israeli war crimes?  Have we become so used to the tragedy that is Gaza that we no longer care?  Have we become so inured to the collective punishment of these stateless people that additional hundreds of mostly civilian deaths mean nothing? 


Declaring America to be Israel's great friend and asking for peace, as Obama did in an op-ed piece in Haaretz, is fine and good.  Meanwhile, the killing of Palestinians continues.  As long as the United States continues to condone - by its inaction, by its military aid and by its use of the veto in the UN - Israel's illegal actions, nothing will change.  Gaza is deemed to become unlivable by 2020.  The ongoing blockade and the devastation being wreaked by the Israeli attacks may hasten that date.

18 members of the family of a Gaza police chief were killed in an Israeli air strike
.Photo in Al Jazeera is by Mohammed Salem/Reuters

Al Jazeera reported on the promised escalation of attacks by Israel after Hamas rejected the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire.  "Hamas said it never received a cease-fire proposal, and added that any deal that did not address its preconditions could not be approved. The group is demanding that Israel end its seven-year blockade on the occupied territory, recommitment by Israel to the terms of the 2012 cease-fire that ended the last offensive and the release of scores of Hamas members arrested across the West Bank in past weeks.  Hamas also wants Egypt to ease its Rafah border closure, which along with Israel's control of Gaza's other borders has economically strangled the strip and restricted the movement of its residents."  The same article reports on the Human Rights Watch's statement.  HRW said that " 'providing warnings does not make an otherwise unlawful attack lawful,' and condemned both Israeli and Gazan attacks on civilians. Israeli airstrikes investigated by HRW have been targeting civilian structures and often unlawfully killing civilians. 'Deliberate or reckless attacks violating the laws of war are war crimes,' the rights group said in a statement.  HRW also condemned Israel's attacks on the family homes of alleged Hamas members. 'The presence of a single, low-level fighter would hardly justify the appalling obliteration of an entire family,' Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of HRW, said in the statement. 'Israel would never accept an argument that any Israeli home of an Israel Defense Force member would be a valid military target.' "


Link to petition requesting Obama to demand that Israelis refrain from bombing Gaza hospital

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.