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Archive for June, 2009

IDF Kidnaps U.S. Citizens, Nobel Laureate in Gaza Waters

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Let anyone who claims there is no difference between a Likud or Kadima government take note of Israel’s act of piracy on the high seas today when it surrounded an unarmed former ferry carrying 23 human rights activists (including a former U.S. Congresswoman, a Nobel laureate and 21 others) and humanitarian aid to Gaza. In similar past circumstances, the Olmert government allowed several such ships to dock in Gaza with their humanitarian cargo. The ship seized earlier today was attempting to break Israel’s siege against Gaza, which itself is a violation of international law.

All American citizens, whether you agree with the politics involved or not should be outraged by this violation of the norms of international and maritime conduct. American officials should be demanding that its four citizens be released immediately. Israel had no right to intercept this ship, nor to impound it or detain its passengers. It has no right to forcibly transfer them to Israeli territory.

The Free Gaza Movement released this statement by former Rep. McKinney:

“This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip,” said Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate. “President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We’re asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.”

And Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire made the following protest:

“The aid we were carrying is a symbol of hope for the people of Gaza, hope that the sea route would open for them, and they would be able to transport their own materials to begin to reconstruct the schools, hospitals and thousands of homes destroyed during the onslaught of “Cast Lead”. Our mission is a gesture to the people of Gaza that we stand by them and that they are not alone” said fellow passenger Mairead Maguire, winner of a Noble Peace Prize for her work in Northern Ireland.

I should add that the Israeli navy will impound the ship in order to inhibit the future work on the FGM. Pressure must be exerted to get Israel to release the ship undamaged (it is highly likely that Israel will render the ship inoperable or permanently crippled if it ever does return it).

FGM suggests that those who wish to help may contact the following:

CONTACT the Israeli Ministry of Justice
tel: +972 2646 6666 or +972 2646 6340
fax: +972 2646 6357

CONTACT the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
tel: +972 2530 3111
fax: +972 2530 3367

CONTACT Mark Regev in the Prime Minister’s office at:
tel: +972 5 0620 3264 or +972 2670 5354
[email protected]

CONTACT the International Committee of the Red Cross to ask for their assistance in establishing the wellbeing of the kidnapped human rights workers and in securing their immediate release!

Red Cross Israel
tel: +972 3524 5286
fax: +972 3527 0370
[email protected]

Red Cross Switzerland:
tel: +41 22 730 3443
fax: +41 22 734 8280

Red Cross USA:
tel: +1 212 599 6021
fax: +1 212 599 6009

Tags: gaza flotilla, Israel Defense Forces, Mideast Peace
Posted in Mideast Peace | 66 Comments »

Barak Meets Mitchell, Result–’Bupkis’ (Nothing)

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Smiles belie disagreements between Israel and U.S. (AP)

Last week, Bibi Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with George Mitchell in Paris. Shimon Shiffer of Yediot Achronot reported that Mitchell cancelled and told the Israelis to come back when they had something real to put on the table. The result was Ehud Barak’s half-baked settlement freeze “compromise,” which had the legs cut out from under it by half the members of the senior ministerial committee that considered it, before Barak even presented it to the Americans. Such is the fragmented, dysfunctional nature of the current Israeli government.

Anyway, Israel’s Mr. Smith went to Washington and met with Mitchell today and the result was…bupkis–nothing. But what’s really interesting is to see how two Israeli reporters report the same event. Let’s start with the more credible version from Maariv’s Meirav David (in Hebrew):

According to Barak, the meeting was positive. But by its conclusion there was no resolution of the disagreement between Israel and the U.S. Barak tried to persuade Mitchell to open a more comprehensive regional peace process [rather than dealing with settlements].

Those in Barak’s party agreed that in the longer-term it will be necessary for Israel to agree to a formulation which will stop settlement construction. But in the course of the meeting neither Mitchell nor Barak succeeded in finding a satisfactory formulation.

Now note how Haaretz’s Barak Ravid reports the same meeting:

Defense Minister Ehud Barak and U.S. special Mideast envoy George Mitchell agreed during their talks in New York this week that Israel must take action toward easing access for Palestinians in the West Bank and halting settlement activity.

Their four-hour discussion brought Israel and the United States closer to ending its dispute over settlement construction, a source close to Barak said.

Mitchell did not explicitly tell Barak that Israel must impose a complete freeze on settlements – as the U.S. has been demanding – but rather emphasized that Jerusalem must take “action” on the matter, according to a Defense Ministry statement following the talks.

Asked whether Israel would declare a temporary settlement building freeze, Barak told reporters following the meeting: “I think that it’s a little bit too early to predict.

…While significant progress was made in the talks, said the source close to Barak, differences remain over a number of subjects.

“There is still disagreement, but the direction is positive and there is a good dialogue,” a source close to the defense minister said.

First, Ravid has told you that Barak’s “freeze-lite” proposal either wasn’t even floated at the meeting or wasn’t taken seriously when it was. Second, Ravid has spun the meeting with some positive flim-flam that has absolutely no basis in fact. You read his article and find me one concrete factual development that accords with the positive spin he’s given to the story. Then, keep in mind that the Maariv reporter more accurately noted there essentially was no agreement on anything of substance. The only thing they agreed on was that Mitchell would be back in the Middle East in two weeks. Big deal.

Third, the notion that Mitchell didn’t tell Barak that Israel had to impose a total settlement freeze is preposterous on its face. After all, this IS declared U.S. government policy. To believe that Mitchell would not have reiterated the stated policy of his own government is to say that Mitchell is an incompetent envoy. And believe me, Mitchell is NOT incompetent.

So as far as Ravid’s report is concerned, it’s simply not credible. Among close observers of the Israeli media Ravid is a reporter known for having extremely cozy relationships with his establishment govenrment sources. In such an environment, reporters and sources scratch each others’ backs and the former tailor reporting to make their sources look as good as possible. It appears that Meirav David doesn’t feel the need to do this, bless him.

H/t Sol Salbe. Comment is Free today published my take on the meeting, Settlement Freeze Fraud, which was written yesterday before it had taken place. As usual the comment thread with a few exceptions has been monopolized by pro-Israel rightists and a bit of reason and light from those with a different perspective would be helpful.

Tags: ehud-barak
Posted in Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 2 Comments »

Sabeel Founder, Naim Ateek, in Seattle-Everett

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Canon Naim Ateek

July 18-20, 2009

Canon Naim Ateek is an Episcopalian priest, and often referred to as “The Desmond Tutu of Palestine”. He was born in the Palestinian village of Beisan, south of the Sea of Galilee, and grew up in Nazareth. Ateek established the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem in 1991. Before that, he served as Canon of St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem and as a parish priest in Haifa and Nazareth. www.sabeel.org

He is scheduled to speak on:

SATURDAY, JULY 18^th

Kadima House, 10:00 to noon - 12353 8th Ave. NE, Seattle 98125

This service will be the first time that Ateek has been a guest at an American Jewish congregation

Ascension Episcopal Church, 6:30 PM – 2330 Viewmont Way West, Seattle
Reservations: $50 at Brown Paper Tickets (800) 838-3006
www.brownpapertickets.com

SUNDAY, JULY 19^th

Saint Marks Cathedral – 1245 Tenth Ave. East, Canon Naim Ateek will preach at the regular 9 and 11 am services.

MONDAY, JULY 20^th

First Presbyterian Church, – 2936 Rockefeller Avenue, Everett, lunch with Canon Naim Ateek featured speaker. 12 noon to 2:00 PM Reservations by calling 425-259-7139. Leave name and number attending.

Ateek’s newest book is A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation, which will be available on his July tour in Western Washington.

Tags: naim ateek, sabeel
Posted in Mideast Peace | 1 Comment »

Israel 58th on Failed State Index

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Foreign Policy has just released its annual ranking of the world’s most failed states and there is good news and bad news for Israel. The good news is that it is one of the less failed of the failed states. The bad news is that it IS a failed state (using the terms adopted by Foreign Policy) ranked 58th out of a total of 177 states with a score of 84.6. The most failed state, Somalia, scored 114. The least failed, Norway, scored 18. It is listed as more failed than some fairly troubled countries like Papua New Guinea, Belarus, Madagascar, Fiji and Saudi Arabia, Armenia and Albania. Out of a color-coded five categories, Israel/West Bank ranked in the second most extreme category, “In Danger.”

The categories used to determine how failed a state was are demographic pressures, refugees, group grievance, human flight, uneven development, economic decline, state delegitimization, public services, human rights, security apparatus, factionalized elites, and (level of) external intervention. The issues Israel scored the highest (most troubled) on were external intervention (8), factionalized elites (8), human rights (8), group grievance (9.3), and refugees (8).

Israel’s champions may try to point out that Israel’s ranking included the West Bank and thus the problems facing the Palestinians became Israel’s albatross in its ranking. But that is precisely the point that the Magazine wished to make–that without solving the Occupation Israel will continue being a failed state. Neither Foreign Policy nor the world will continue accepting Israel’s claim that disarray among Palestinians is their own fault. Societal chaos in Palestine can be directly attributed to a conflict in which Israel is at least an equal partner.

This news will make the Israeli foreign minstry gnash its teeth. It’s been spending millions on marketing smoke and mirrors to make the world forget the simple fact of 42 years of Occupation and millions of subjugated Palestinians. Here Foreign Policy goes and undoes all that money and effort with a single article. How frustrating. Now the hasbara effort will have to pick up the pieces and start over again.

Tags: foreign-policy
Posted in Mideast Peace | 6 Comments »

Iran: It Ain’t Over Yet

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Moussavi supporters rally Sunday (Your View/Reuters)

Iranian authorities granted Hossein Moussavi a permit to host a memorial gathering at a Teheran mosque to honor one the Islamic Revolution’s early martyrs. He turned the memorial into a political protest at which several thousand turned out in black to mourn the martyrs of Teheran Spring. As usual, a peaceful march was turned into a brawl by violent security forces who broke bones and beat elderly women, among other protestors.

It’s premature to say that the protest phase of this campaign is over. I think what is likely is that the movement will become opportunistic. Whenever moments of opening arise, it will exploit them to voice a new protest. And when the regime makes another egregious error as it did in stealing the election, the protest will resume with renewed force and ferocity. Iran has not seen the last of Moussavi nor the last of street protests like this one. And though the streets may go quiet for a time, it is only a matter of time before the battle erupts anew.

Tags: iran
Posted in Mideast Peace | 3 Comments »

Israel’s Freeze Fraud

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Ethan Bronner writes in today’s NYT that senior Israeli officials say Ehud Barak will come to Washington Tuesday and offer what I’m calling “freeze-lite.” That is, a partial, temporary (as in, the blink of an eye) settlement freeze which Israel is naturally calling, according to Bronner’s formulation, “a complete freeze.” The problem? It isn’t complete. Not by a long-shot. Just note this sentence from Bronner’s second paragraph:

The freeze would not affect construction that was already under way, nor include East Jerusalem.

Well, that’s a loophole big enough to drive a Mack truck through. A settlement freeze that omits East Jerusalem is like Peter Stuyvesant purchasing Manhattan from the Indians, excluding Central Park.

Bronner is clearly a “believer” in this offer, as he characterizes it thus:

While such an offer falls short of President Obama’s demand that Israel halt all settlement building now, it is the most forthcoming response that senior Israeli officials have given to date and suggests that American pressure is having some effect.

Again, the phrase “some effect” is so vague as to be almost meaningless. Unless Israel agrees to a full settlement freeze that includes all portions of the Territories including East Jerusalem, then American pressure is not having enough of an effect. The same holds true of freezing all current construction.

In the report, the Israelis tell Bronner that 2,000 housing units are under construction and would be completed. That’s not a drop in the bucket. And it’s likely many of those units are in Maale Adumim, a prime area of contention, whose ‘thickening’ by Israeli builders and planner is a primary impediment to a territorially-contiguous Palestinian state.

I realize that Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem poses particular political problems for an Israeli government since, if it did agree to a freeze in East Jerusalem, it would be tacitly conceding that East Jerusalem is the same as the rest of the Territories. But this is Israel’s problem and not ours. It annexed East Jerusalem against the explicit wishes of the U.S. and most of the rest of the world. So now it will have to eat that crow if it wishes to get on board with the Obama administration.

Barak himself is always good for sheer chutzpah and effrontery and doesn’t disappoint here:

“Many Israelis fear that what Palestinians want is not two states but two stages,” meaning an end to Israel in phases. He also said that by focusing solely on settlement building and not on what the Arab countries should also be doing for peace, Israel felt that it was being driven to its knees and delivered to the other side rather than asked to join a shared effort.

He’ll have to pardon our collective jaws dropping at that whopper. Israel “being driven to its knees?” By a settlement freeze? Puh-leeze. Barak conveniently forgets that the Arab League has already offered simultaneous mutual recognition to Israel if it withdraws to 67 borders. But what has Israel offered that anyone can take seriously? Gorsnisht.

I don’t even know whether Bronner realizes that in this passage, discussing Israel’s conquest of the Territories in the 1967 war, he reveals himself as a Revisionist:

…Taking the West Bank, previously held by Jordan, fired the collective imagination in Israel because so much of it — including the cities of Hebron, Nablus and Jericho — was part of the biblical Jewish homeland that Zionism sought to reclaim.

Parse that carefully: Zionism sought to reclaim the “biblical Jewish homeland.” That’s pure Jabotinsky. In truth, David Ben Gurion accepted Partition, which meant precisely the opposite of what Bronner is claiming. Not to mention that aside from the Revisionists, mainstream Zionism never felt it needed the entirety of the “biblical Jewish homeland” in order to establish the State of Israel. I suppose one could argue that Bronner phrased this awkwardly and didn’t mean to say that Zionism wanted to reclaim the “biblical Jewish homeland,” at least not necessarily in its entirety. But when you write about a subject as freighted as this, you must be careful and nuanced. If not, you leave yourself open to all sorts of mischief, which is what this journalist does regularly in his reports.

And lest anyone claim that Bronner is not an apologist for Israeli policy, read this passage:

Israel says the real problem is Arab rejection of its existence in any borders at all…

Excuse me? The 2002 Saudi offer explicitly offered Israel Arab recognition. Syria is practically clamoring to recognize Israel if it returns the Golan. The PLO has for several decades recognized Israel. So what is Bronner “on” about?? Once again I ask in vain–if Bronner doesn’t want to write more carefully about these delicate issues isn’t there an editor in the house to do so for him?

Ever the cheeky one, Barak has more. Here he touts Israel’s ‘generosity’ toward the Palestinians:

It has formed a ministerial committee headed by Mr. Netanyahu aimed at starting economic projects in the West Bank. It has also given the Palestinian security forces greater freedom of action in the past couple of weeks.

Mr. Barak presented such steps as examples of concessions Israel had already made that deserved recognition from Washington and Arab leaders.

Wow, you set up a government committee and hand over a few IDF roadblocks to PA security forces and all of a sudden you’re ready to make peace with the Palestinians. Israel has zero credibility on these issues and so will have to do much better before the Arab states will risk being burned by offering anything to Israel in response to such alleged “good faith.”

Tags: 1967-borders, east-jerusalem, ehud-barak, ethan bronner, saudi peace plan
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 23 Comments »

IDF-Border Police Pogrom at Safa

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Ta’ayush leaders, David Shulman (also a Hebrew University professor ) and Joseph Dana, report that peace activists who attempted to accompany the West Bank villagers of al-Safa yesterday to harvest their fields were met with brutal force by the Israeli Border Police. One Palestinian suffered a broken leg. An Israeli teenager suffered a severely sprained arm that they thought was broken.

David’s report came via eyewitness Amiel Vardi, whose daughter’s arm was nearly broken:

Amiel says that not only were the 30 activists arrested as soon as they arrived at as-Safa to accompany the farmers to their fields, but they were also savagely beaten at the time of the arrests and then beaten again, severely, with clubs, while being transported to the police station. We are talking about people who had their heads rammed against the sides of the army jeeps, and severe beatings with clubs in full view of the senior commanders who were present there– two Mahatim, that is, brigade commanders. No policemen were involved– these were Border Police (two units), and the sense is that they had explicit orders to do this. Sahar, Amiel’s daughter, had her arm badly twisted but fortunately not broken. One of the Palestinians had his leg broken.

All of us have been arrested before, most of us many times, but we’ve never seen this– although we know it’s common practice used against Palestinian arrestees. It was a very frightening experience, not much different in kind from what the Iranian regime has been doing to protesters in the streets of Iran (in case anyone thinks Israel is more enlightened than Iran).

…We need to get this information out into the international media as soon as possible.

Best, David

Bernard Avishai has published David’s much longer and more comprehensive account at his blog.

Joseph Dana of Ibn Ezra was an eyewitness to the police riot:

Over the last several months, Israeli and international activists have made the small village of Safa an important part of the struggle for the rule of law in the Occupied Territories. The village is situated next to the settlement of Bat Ayin, which was the scene of a horrific murder of a twelve-year-old boy by a mentally disturbed resident of Safa in April 2009. Since that incident, and along with growing US pressure on Israel regarding settlements, [Bay Ayin] has become increasingly violent towards its neighbors in Safa. This violence has been characterized by the burning and cutting down of Palestinian groves, severe beatings of Safa residents and Israeli activists and, just last week, hurling rocks on the farmers and activists that attempt to work the land…

Today, 27 June 2009, the IDF and Israel Border Police created a blockade at the entrance of the farmlands. As soon as we arrived, the IDF began using violent force against the forty to fifty Israelis, Palestinians and international activists on the ground. As we walked into the area, pleading with the army to allow us entry, we were beaten, thrown to the ground, attacked and insulted. We demanded to see legal authority for such actions. That only came later after we had been ‘removed’ from the area. Many of us suffered bruises and injuries, including an 18-year-old Israeli female whose arm was sprained and a Palestinian man who reportedly had his leg broken.

The IDF arrested 30 Israelis for violating a “closed military zone” order that, according to the 2006 Supreme Court ruling, cannot be used simply to prevent farming in Safa. The activists were detained for three hours and then released without being charged with any offense.

The events today in Safa are a major escalation in the IDF policy to intimidate and attack Israeli and international peace activists who wish to help Palestinian farmers maintain their livelihood, even as the IDF does nothing to restrain the settlers. No matter how much the state may sympathize with the settlers and feel the need to protect them, it must not allow this vigilante behavior to continue, as it only propagates the cycle of violence.”

Let anyone who sides with Bibi Netanyahu regarding the settlement freeze consider what effect encouraging such settler thugs and their state-sanctioned enablers has on the political situation. As Pres. Obama and George Mitchell seem to be saying: we need more, rather than less pressure. Easing the pressure allows law-breaking Jews to feel vindicated by their behavior. We need to let Bibi know that every such riot by agents of the state makes our job easier. So he has two choices–he can clamp down on this madness and try to make Israel’s Occupation policies look slightly more palatable to the world; or he can do nothing and let our side make hay.

David Shulman presents the argument in Avishai’s blog eloquently as usual:

Let no one claim that such things happen only in places like Iran but never in Israel. Let no one claim that Israel is an enlightened, free country, the very opposite of places like Iran. Let no one claim that the Israeli army is incapable of inhuman cruelty inflicted on innocent victims, whether they are Palestinian civilians or Israelis demonstrating peacefully against the occupation. Already now, as I write, the system Israel has put in place in the occupied territories is barbaric, in every sense of the word. Unless there is massive international pressure and effective protest, that system is not about to go away. Indeed, in the meantime, things are getting worse, on the ground, day by day.

What is astonishing about this incident is that the Bat Ayin settlers didn’t even have to weigh in with their usual brutish thuggery. The IDF and Border Police acted on their behalf. Let no Israeli or Diaspora Israel supporter ever say that the settlers do not represent Israel, that they are somehow aberrant extremists. Indeed they do fully reflect and represent Israel. If this were not the case then there would be security and order in the Territories for settlers and Palestinians alike.

Tags: david shulman, israeli-bloggers
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace | 1 Comment »

Bronner Sticks His Foot in It Again

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Israeli anti-Occupation activist, Ezra Nawi, builds shelter for Palestinian villagers (Rina Castelnuovo/NYT)

I don’t know what it is with Ethan Bronner, the NY Times’ Israel correspondent. He’s clearly intelligent. He knows the issues fairly well. But his problem is he’s conflict about the politics of the Middle East. With a child in the IDF and married to an Israeli it’s almost as if he has to pull his punches [correction: Ethan Bronner denies he has a son in the IDF and I can't for the life of me remember where I read this. So I stand corrected on this particular matter and apologize to Bronner and Phil Weiss, who picked this up from here. But Bronner's wife IS Israeli.]

It’s not that he’s a horrible journalist. After all, as I said he’s articulate and intelligent and knows the issues. But rather than come right out and say something definitive, he beats around the bush and tempers his judgments. He wants everyone to like him and is shocked when many don’t.

The thing that irks me most about his reporting is that he ALWAYS manages to include a real howler in almost every major report that he writes. It usually something so condescending toward the Israeli peace movement or the Palestinians or something so twisted or distorted that it leaves you scratching your head how an otherwise intelligent human being can say something so out there, so…dumb.

In today’s report, he chose a worthy subject in Israeli peace activist Ezra Nawi, who has “adopted” the Palestinian villages of the south Hebron Hills, defending them from the marauding neighboring settlers. In addition, Ezra does come up for sentencing on Wednesday so the scrutiny on Israeli justice from a major U.S. media outlet is quite welcome. Please sign this Jewish Voice for Peace petition to pressure Israeli authorities to end this sham judicial process. For more on Nawi’s case, see this report by Neve Gordon.

But it’s as if he somehow has to mollify his right-wing readers in choosing such a progressive topic that he adds the following howler:

Since the Israeli left lost so much popular appeal after the violent Palestinian uprising of 2000 and the Hamas electoral victory in Gaza three years ago, its activists tend to be a rarefied bunch — professors of Latin or Sanskrit, and translators of medieval poetry. Mr. Nawi, however, is a plumber.

A note before I go on: later in this story he DOES quote an Israeli peace activist, David Shulman, who IS a professor of Sanskrit at the Hebrew University. But it’s as if this single source has somehow become emblematic of the entire Israeli peace movement. Not just emblematic, but in Bronner’s eyes the entire Israeli left has been reduced to David Shulman. While Prof. Shulman, a leader of Ta’ayush, IS an extraordinary scholar and human being, it is s deep disservice to him and the Israeli left to imply there aren’t many tens of thousands of others doing work equally valuable.

Bronner: have you forgotten about B’Tselem, Gisha, Yesh G’vul, Combatants for Peace, Breaking the Silence, Rabbis for Human Rights, Hadash, Peace Now, the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, Courage to Refuse, Parent’s Circle, Anarchists Against the Wall (just to mention organizations)? And individuals like Uri Avnery, Rabbi Menachem Froman, the Sheministim, Michael Sfard, Jeff Halper, Shulamit Aloni, Robbi Damelin, Yitzchak Frankenthal, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Dov Kheinin. Are these all nothing but effete European professors of obscure humanist subjects? The very notion is absurd and offensive.

Now, as always with Bronner’s howlers–there is a kernel of truth there. The organized Israeli left has shriveled and failed in a massive way since the first Intifada and especially during the Lebanon and Gaza wars. Note I said the “organized” left. I say this deliberately because Israeli NGOs and individual peace activists are doing work as vital as any done by the Israeli left when it was a more powerful political force. So for Bronner to dismiss the constituency of the Israeli left as he has done is deeply insulting and false.

He owes these courageous groups and individuals an apology. But will they get one? Don’t hold your breath.

David Shulman provides this bit of sad news from the anti-Occupation forces:

Yesterday was a tough day in the Territories…The whole group of some 30 Taayush activists, including 2 Palestinian drivers and some of our Palestinian colleagues, was arrested on arrival at al-Safa to accompany the farmers to their lands. The arrests were carried out [by the IDF] very brutally, there was one broken leg and one apparently broken arm.

As far as the IDF and the Occupation goes, plus ca change plus la meme chose. Oh I forgot, that’s going to mark me as yet another effete western intellectual do-gooder.

Tags: david shulman, ethan bronner, Mideast Peace, occupation
Posted in Mideast Peace | 18 Comments »