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By Jeff Madrick
$15.61
By Mahmoud Darwish
$13.57
$23
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AP / Seth Wenig
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By Juan Cole — It is often the little things that trip up empires and send them spiraling into geopolitical feebleness.
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AP / Muhammed Muheisen
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By Larry Gross — When I was a youngster learning Jewish history in Jerusalem’s schools, the story was clear and even simple. “A land without people for a people without land.” Well, there are several striking problems with this aphorism.
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Miko Peled, peace activist and son of a well-known Israeli general, talks about his new book, “The General’s Son,” and what he calls the “three myths” of Israeli history.
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Adam Zyglis, Cagle Cartoons, The Buffalo News —
Posted on Mar 6, 2011
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More strife in Libya, the Wisconsin Assembly passes a bill barring collective bargaining rights, the death of DOMA and a budget standoff in Washington. Buckle in for “Left, Right & Center.”
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AP / Ben Curtis
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By Chris Hedges — Our failures in the Middle East have consequences. We are soaked with the stench of these regimes.
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In the documentary “Budrus,” Palestinians of all stripes and Israelis work together to save a village from Israel’s security barrier.
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AP / Sebastian Scheiner
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By Juan Cole — As the decade draws to a close, it is clear that the bright hopes inspired by Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech have markedly faded, and the disappointments have outweighed achievements in the most important arena for contemporary American foreign policy.
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AP / Rodrigo Abd
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By Juan Cole — A Republican victory has the potential to keep the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan, derail the beleaguered peace process and worsen U.S. security.
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Flickr / Steve Slep (CC-BY)
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Lebanese officials are expected to approve Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s trip to the country’s border with Israel. Once there, Ahmadinejad may, as reported, throw some stones over the fence. Or he may skip the whole thing, if security concerns prevail.
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White House / Pete Souza
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Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority could implode before they even get off the ground. Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell will have their chaperoning cut out for them, with the PA threatening to withdraw if Israel resumes settlement construction and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing a plan to do just that.
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AP / Emilio Morenatti
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By Chris Hedges — Desperate Israeli politicians, watching opposition to their apartheid state mount, have proposed a perverted form of what they term “the one-state solution.”
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Flickr / World Economic Forum (CC-BY-SA)
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again rejected calls to stop construction of Jewish housing in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope to make their capital.
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By William Pfaff — God’s specific instruction to the Jewish people to reoccupy Jerusalem and the Palestinian West Bank stands in the way of peace, but President Obama must get results—and fast—before the situation deteriorates.
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Flickr / Whewes
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Roughly 2.4 percent of the Israeli population has managed to hijack the peace process by moving into settlements in Palestinian territory. So what drives these people? It may have less to do with religion and more to do with the low cost of living on occupied land.
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World Economic Forum
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet he would not oppose the “natural growth” of settlements, saying, “There is no way that we are going to tell people not to have children or to force young people to move away from their families.” Israeli settlements are widely seen as a hindrance to the peace process.
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state.gov
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The chances of peace in the Middle East over the next four to eight years have something to do with what Hillary Clinton is able to achieve there. We’re getting a first glimpse this week, as Clinton makes overtures to Syria, Iran and the Palestinians while trying not to threaten Israel’s BFF status.
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AP photo / Sebastian Scheiner
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By Chris Hedges — The assault on Gaza exposed not only Israel’s callous disregard for international law but the gutlessness of the American press. Nearly all reporters were, as during the buildup to the Iraq war, pliant stenographers and echo chambers.
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senate.gov
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President Obama didn’t wait long to tackle one of the most intractable items in his in box: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On a whirlwind Thursday, Obama spoke to leaders in the region (minus Hamas), called for an end to the Gaza blockade and appointed George Mitchell (above), the man who brokered a truce in Northern Ireland, as Mideast envoy.
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AP photo / Rina Castelnuovo, pool
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By Bill Boyarsky — The president-elect has struggled to stay out of the Gaza fight, but based on everything he said during the campaign, he appears determined to stand up for Israel.
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Tab, The Calgary Sun —
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Flickr / Amir Farshad Ebrahimi
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Haaretz’s Gideon Levy recalls the mathematician whose dutiful students drew up plans for a “blood pipeline” without questioning why it should be built. With Gaza, he warns, Israel faces such a test and “when the time comes for reckoning, we will need to remember the damage this war did to Israel.”
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Yaakov Kirschen, The Jerusalem Post, Dry Bones —
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Shifa hospital in Gaza has struggled to keep pace with Israel’s punishing airstrikes. Bloomberg reports that the hospital’s morgue has three bodies crammed in each drawer, with dozens more lying on stretchers.
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Israeli Foreign Minister (and prime minister contender) Tzipi Livni responds to international criticism of the Gaza airstrikes that have killed hundreds: “The one who needs to be condemned by the international community is Hamas.”
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By Joe Conason — When the journalistic pack bites into a tasty cliché, they often refuse to let go, lazily chewing and regurgitating a phrase like “team of rivals” long after the flavor is gone.
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USAF / Staff Sgt. Samuel Rogers
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By William Pfaff — Barack Obama has no choice but to accept responsibility for America’s foreign policy crises. But why should he accept them on the distorted and even hysterical terms by which the Bush administration has defined world affairs since 2001?
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The Mosaic Intelligence Report investigates whether the recent U.S. attack in Syria was motivated by John McCain’s sagging polls.
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By Joe Conason — Nothing in the presidential campaign so far has been as instructive as its swift descent into the politics of personal destruction. Although voters have probably heard little lately that they did not already know about Sen. Barack Obama, they have learned something very important about Sen. John McCain.
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Antônio Milena / ABr
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert isn’t exactly popular these days. Forced to resign in disgrace, it may have been with the weight of politics leaving his shoulders that he let loose during an interview with an Israeli newspaper. Among other revelations, Olmert said his country was stuck in a 1948 mind-set and must now give up virtually all contested territory—including Jerusalem and the West Bank.
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With Condoleezza Rice fast approaching on a peace mission, Israel offered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a show of support on Monday by freeing 198 Palestinian prisoners. The group included Israel’s longest serving prisoner. Israel holds roughly 9,000 Palestinians.
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Fighting between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas has led to human rights abuses in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. A Palestinian human rights organization recently drew similar conclusions. Both sides have admitted to at least some of the findings of the report.
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By Joe Conason — The strongest argument for Obama is the weak performance of the Republican regime’s vaunted “grown-ups,” including McCain and his advisers. They have gone far in proving that experience can be overrated.
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Before leaving Jordan for neighboring Israel, Barack Obama promised to pursue peace between Israelis and Palestinians “starting from the minute I’m sworn into office,” and to “be concerned and recognize the legitimate difficulties that the Palestinian people are experiencing right now.” His deference to impartiality comes a month after the candidate seemed to cede the city of Jerusalem, whether accidentally or not, to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
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Flickr / World Economic Forum
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Tony Blair had hoped to visit Gaza in his capacity as Mideast envoy for the Quartet—that’s the U.S., the U.N., the EU and Russia—but had to cancel because of a “specific security threat.” It’s hard to be an envoy if you can’t get to where you need to go, but the former British prime minister promised to make it to Gaza eventually and “press for help for the people there.”
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flickr.com/photos/philgarlic
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By Robert Scheer — How proud the Clintonistas must be. They have learned how to rival what Hillary once termed the “vast right-wing conspiracy” in the effort to destroy a viable Democratic leader who dares to stand in the way of their ambitions. Neither Karl Rove nor Dick Morris could have done a better job.
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AP photo / Ahmad al-Rubaye, pool
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By Robert Scheer — President Bush has made his antagonism for Iran and its president well known, but in Iraq he has created a great ally for his enemy, as was clear from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s historic visit.
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AP photo / David Furst, pool
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By Chris Hedges — The Gilbert and Sullivan charade of statesmanship played out by George W. Bush and his enabler, Condoleezza Rice, as they wander the Middle East is a fitting end to seven years of misrule.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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President Bush has arrived in Israel, where he plans to do some legacy shopping and see if he can’t just solve this Mideast conflict everyone is always talking about. Everyday Israelis and Palestinians, however, remain skeptical that their leaders will find a solution before the end of 2008, as promised.
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White House photo / Tina Hager
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For the first time during his presidency, in the final year of his final term, George W. Bush is headed to Israel and the West Bank. Given that he’s even less popular in the Mideast than he is at home, massive security preparations are under way.
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AP photo / Sasa Kralj
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By Reese Erlich — In this excerpt from his new book, “The Iran Agenda,” veteran independent journalist and Truthdig contributor Reese Erlich challenges the conventional wisdom on Iran’s nuclear ambitions as he investigates the drive for war.
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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If Israeli and Palestinian officials can’t find a way to establish a Palestinian state, the state of Israel won’t survive, according to Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. These words of warning came on the heels of Olmert’s meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and President Bush in Annapolis, Md., during which the three leaders laid out plans and set goals for formal peace talks.
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By Joe Conason — The ascension of George W., according to many Bush loyalists, was a return of mature and wise foreign policy. Tell that to the ailing Middle East, whose future is now being pondered in a U.S. meeting that seems destined to fail.
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