By Bill Van Esveld, Human Rights Watch The Israel Defense Force has an answer to the shelling yesterday that killed four children near the Gaza City port. At a media briefing yesterday, an IDF official reportedly said the attack had targeted an “identified Hamas structure,” and that Israeli forces had misidentified the boys as “fleeing […]
Obama needs Europe in responding to MH17 Crash, but NSA Spying a Bar
By Simon Reich, Rutgers University The tragic circumstances surrounding the downing of Malaysian Airlines’ flight MH17 remain unclear. The three parties who might be responsible – the Ukrainians, the Russians and the rebels – all blame each other. All possess, or have the capacity to possess, the Buk surface-to-air missile system that reputedly brought the […]
Gaza: Netanyahu, Goaded by Israeli Far Right, Risks Breaking Int’l Law
Gaza invasion gets underway as pressure mounts on Netanyahu By Simon Mabon, Lancaster University “Phase two” of Operation Protective Edge has begun: Israeli military forces have launched a ground incursion into Gaza. Protective Edge began on July 8, with the stated goal of protecting Israeli citizens from the rocket attacks of Hamas and Islamic Jihad […]
Health Catastrophe in Gaza after Israel bombs water infrastructure
By: Ahmed Hadi Gaza – Bassem Siam carried two plastic gallons as he left his home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza, ignoring the intense bombardment and the continued Israeli military flights. He went to his neighbors who happen to have a small supply of drinking water to get a sip of water […]
Blow-Back: How Bush-Cheney Reduced Iraq to Ashes
By Dahr Jamail [This essay is a joint TomDispatch/Truthout report.] For Americans, it was like the news from nowhere. Years had passed since reporters bothered to head for the country we invaded and blew a hole through back in 2003, the country once known as Iraq that our occupation drove into a never-ending sectarian nightmare. […]
Besieged and Blockaded: What Gaza is fighting Back Against
Ed. note: When war breaks out there is a tendency to focus on the nitty-gritty detail of tit for tat. But all wars have a back story. The inhumane and frankly creepy Israeli treatment of the Palestinians of Gaza is the back story for today’s conflict. AFSC explained the situation as it unfolded toward the […]
Where’s the Outrage over Spying on US Muslim Civil Rights Leaders?
TheRealNews: “Where’s the Outrage Over Spying on Muslim Civil Rights Leaders?”
Netanyahu’s Last Stand: Why he Cannot Win by Bombing Gaza
Published on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 by Common Dreams By Ramzy Baroud When the bodies of three Israeli settlers – Aftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaar, both 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19 – were found on June 30 near Hebron in the southern West Bank, Israel went into a state of mourning and a wave of […]
The Pretender-Caliph and Islamic History: The Truth about Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
By Asma Afsaruddin So Muslims of the twenty-first century have a caliph, do they? According to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the abolition of the caliphate in 1924 has now been reversed and the institution has been revived after an interregnum of ninety years. The new caliph is even called Abu Bakr, […]