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By John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt $26.00
$23
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 guardian.co.uk
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Following accusations by human rights groups last week, Israel has finally admitted that its troops “may have used” white phosphorus shells—a chemical agent that wreaks havoc on the skin—in contravention of international law.
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 guardian.co.uk
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Following previous accusations by aid agencies, a video has surfaced amid Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip that shows images “consistent with the use of white phosphorus shells”—i.e. chemical weaponry. The Israeli military has denied use of the chemical agent, which can burn skin to the bone.
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 Theatrum Belli
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By Robert Fisk — So once again, Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. Forty civilian refugees dead in a United Nations school, three more in another. Not bad for a night’s work in Gaza by the army that believes in “purity of arms”. But why should we be surprised?
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 The New York Times
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Following a three-hour pause in its aerial bombardment to allow those in the Gaza Strip to “get medical attention, get supplies ... whatever they need,” Israel has resumed its attack, although it promised additional halts amid reports that Hamas and Israel are working out details of a cease-fire. Overall, 660 Palestinians have been reported killed, including more than 200 children.
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 AP photo / Mohammed Zaatari
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By Robert Fisk — Can it be that yet another Israeli failure in Gaza will change the dynamics of “peacekeeping” in the Middle East, that at last the ghost of Arafat will watch the “internationalisation” of the Israeli-Palestinian war?
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 AP photo / Alex Brandon
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It’s hard to remember a time when so much was at stake during a presidential transition in America. Barack Obama is still two weeks shy of taking office, but even so, his silence about the current crisis in Gaza in particular has not gone unnoticed.
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 AP photo / Sebastian Scheiner
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Israeli forces crossed into Gaza on Saturday night, launching ground attacks and seriously ratcheting up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following a week of bombardment from intensive airstrikes. The United Nations Security Council met that evening in New York about the mounting Mideast crisis.
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The challenges of this new year, or at least its initial chapter, are already quite apparent—what with the dire situation in Gaza, the sputtering global economy and a major transition under way in the United States. Barack Obama, fresh off his Hawaiian holiday, has his work cut out for him, to say the very least.
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 Ma'an Images
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The United Nations marked Israel’s seventh day of aerial attacks by warning of a “critical emergency” in the Gaza Strip, as Palestinians endure food and medical supply shortages and distribution problems even as estimates of dead and wounded Palestinians continue to rise.
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 Maan Images / Hatem Omar
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After five days of almost constant aerial attacks and the deaths of nearly 400 Palestinians, the Israeli government has refused a 48-hour cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, arguing that it needs to “keep up the pressure on Hamas”—a startling euphemism for its lethal assaults—as the Israeli military ramps up for a likely ground invasion.
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 AP photo / Dan Balilty
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By Robert Scheer — So, why didn’t they give peace a chance? Why did the leaders of Hamas and Israel not wait for the incoming U.S. president’s inauguration before mutually escalating hostilities?
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 theatrum-belli.com
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Be it due to danger or the ever-present desire for security, the Israeli government has always found reason to forbid journalists to enter the Gaza Strip at times of “conflict.” The current brutal assault on Gaza is no different, but this time an association of journalists has filed a petition in the Israeli Supreme Court to demand access to the occupied territories.
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As the current Israeli-Palestinian clash reached the three-day mark with no sign of resolution, President Bush weighed in on the crisis via a spokesperson at “the Western White House” in Crawford, Texas.
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 AP photo / Hatem Omar
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More than 150 people were killed and hundreds more wounded Saturday during Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, which were launched in retaliation for last week’s rocket attacks on Israel by the Palestinians, according to Israeli officials.
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 guardian.co.uk
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Israel has discovered the holiday spirit and decided that its blockade of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip should be lifted, allowing trucks of medicine, food and other supplies to enter the occupied territory beginning Friday.
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Once again, the cease-fire is off between the Israelis and Palestinians, and even though the United Nations has again weighed in with Security Council Resolution 1850, which supports a two-state solution, the new measure is not likely to change things in the near future. Over to you, Mr. President-elect.
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 AP photo / Khalil Hamra
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By Robert Fisk — No one in 1967 dreamed that the Israeli-Arab conflict would still be in ferocious progress 41 years later, but the wording in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 has something to do with this ongoing clash.
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 AP photo / Ariel Schalit
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If it looks heartless and sounds heartless, it probably is heartless. A direct quote from a Voice of America news piece: “Israel is ignoring pleas by the United Nations to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, standing firm on its blockade of the Palestinian territory.”
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 stopthewall.org
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It’s been only about a week since Israel closed the border into the Gaza Strip, denying the occupied territory humanitarian supplies and fuel and even blocking journalists, but the UK-based aid group Oxfam is already warning that Gaza “faces disaster” if the blockade is not immediately broken.
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 AP photo / Khalil Hamra
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While many in the world are looking forward to change, an Israeli airstrike proved that some things never will. After a four-month cease-fire between Israeli and Palestinian fighters, Israel launched an attack into the Gaza Strip Tuesday evening, killing six in an allegedly pre-emptive strike.
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, beset by accusations of corruption and bribery, announced Wednesday that he will resign after an internal Kadima Party election to choose a new leader on Sept. 17.
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 AP photo / Jae C. Hong
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By Bill Boyarsky — The adoring media coverage of Barack Obama’s international tour is masking the reality that, whether he wins or loses, we’re almost certain to be stuck in Iraq for a long time, thanks to the legacy of George Bush.
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 slashfilm.com
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Sacha Baron Cohen is already notorious for his alter ego Borat, and now, fortunately for his career (and unfortunately for those who get caught in his comedic cross hairs), he has another invented personality—Austrian fashionista Bruno—who just pulled one over on former Mossad agent Yossi Alpher.
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 blogs.trb.com
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Why is it that the U.S. economy is on a serious downswing? Could it be that we’re in the midst of a super-expensive war with little sign of scaling down in the near future that has jacked up oil prices to new heights and strained the federal budget? According to Bush, he’d have worked out our economic woes if it weren’t for those meddling congressional Democrats.
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Israel denied Hamas a proposed six-month truce in the Gaza Strip on Friday, claiming such a lull would be used by Palestinians to prepare for future attacks against Israel. The cease-fire bid was seen by Israel as a “game” by Hamas, as Israeli airstrikes and commando raids continued in Gaza.
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 flickr.com / John Barnabas
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“Informed sources” say the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a historically contested area between Israel and Syria, may soon find itself under new management. The two countries, which have been at war with each other since 1973, are both looking to resume the stalled 2000 peace talk process, which Syria has declared will not happen until the Golan Heights are returned.
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Is former President Jimmy Carter on a peace mission or a mission impossible? As this Mosaic Intelligence Report explains, Carter will try to mediate the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit as a goodwill gesture on the part of Hamas, which is reported to be seriously considering Carter’s proposal.
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 nytimes.com
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An interim decision by the Israeli Supreme Court on Wednesday marked the beginning of what could become a two-tiered road system in the West Bank. With two separate legal systems for Palestinians and Israelis already in operation, critics fear segregated roads would lead toward further institutionalization of apartheid in the occupied territories.
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A Palestinian gunman opened fire during dinner at Jerusalem’s Mercaz Harav seminary on Thursday, killing eight people and wounding nine before he was shot to death. President Bush condemned the attack, as did Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, while Hamas officials reportedly praised it but didn’t claim responsibility.
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 AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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In keeping with the tradition of U.S. presidents attempting to forge peace agreements during their last years in office, President Bush remains optimistic about securing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal in the final 10 months of his administration despite the recent outbreak of violence in the Middle East.
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 AP photo / Adel Hana
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Attacks by Israeli forces killed more than 70 Palestinians on Saturday as fighting intensified in northern Gaza, prompting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to call the incursion “more than a holocaust.” Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven were wounded, the Israeli military reported. Updated.
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Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 32 Palestinians, including four boys and a six-month-old infant, in the Gaza Strip since Wednesday morning in a standoff that continued into Thursday evening, according to the BBC.
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Warner Bros. might take issue with this character, Assud the rabbit, who recently debuted on the Palestinian kid-targeted program “Pioneers of Tomorrow” and bears more than a passing resemblance to WB’s Bugs Bunny. The similarities stop there, as Assud says he will “get rid of the Jews” and will “eat them up.”
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