The New York Times: Not just anti-Israel, but pro-jihad
In "New York Times: Not Just Anti-Israel But Pro-Islamist," July 21, Barry Rubin skewers the Leftist pseudo-journalism of the Paper Of Record: The New York Times--with the exception of some honorable reporters in the field (you know who you are)--never ceases to amaze one in the spectacularly biased writings of those back at headquarters. Here's one that's particularly remarkable, a real piece of advocacy in which the reporter does everything possible to justify Flotilla ships trying to run...

Israel launches air strikes in Gaza after rocket fire
Fri Jul 30, 2010 5:58pm EDT Gaza (Reuters) - Israel carried out Air Strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday after a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory exploded in the city of Ashkelon, witnesses said. The Air Strikes hit a training camp in Gaza City used by the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the enclave, and smuggling tunnels along Gaza's southern border with Egypt. Another air strike struck an empty caravan in the central Gaza Strip. Palestinian medical workers said four...

Gaza rocket strikes south Israel for fifth time in 24 hours
Israel Air Force Air craft struck at least six targets in the Gaza Strip befire daFriday a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in southern Israel, Hamas security officials and witnesses said. Two civilians were injured in one of three attacks on smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt. The other targets included two open areas in Khan Younis and a metal foundry near Gaza City. The Israeli Military had no immediate comment.

U.N. rights body tells Israel to end Gaza blockade
Geneva | Fri Jul 30, 2010 9:57am EDT Geneva (Reuters) - Israel must lift its Military Blockade of the Gaza Strip and invite an independent, fact-finding mission to investigate its Raid on a Gaza-bound aid Flotilla, a United Nations Rights body said on Friday. The U.N. Human Rights Committee also told Israel to ensure that Palestinians in the occupied territories can enjoy the fundamental civil and political freedoms that Israel had pledged to uphold in the main international Human Rights...

Claims of killings in a divided Hamas
Betrayed ... Mohammed Warshara and his wife, proudly display weapons their son, Munir, smuggled into Gaza before his death. Photo: Jason Koutsoukis Gaza CITY: At 2am on July 16 last year, Mohammed Warshara was woken by a phone call from Hamas, the Militant Islamic resistance movement that controls the Gaza Strip. ''They told me my son had been found in a tunnel in Rafah [the city that borders Gaza's border with Egypt],'' Mr Warshara told the Herald . At the time a prominent leader of the...

Confronting Jew Hatred on Daily Kos: Are They Nazis?
Well, no.

Checking Walt's Stats
My esteemed colleague Steve Walt writes today that Obama is in trouble for 2012 in part because he's "0 for 4 on the big ticket items that have defined his Foreign Policy agenda."

Report: Gaza medical aid is expired
Palestinians claim that most of the medicines sent into Gaza are past their expiration date, Al-Jazeera reported on Wednesday. "They're bringing more harm than good," the article explained, describing expired medicines and broken supplies sent by different countries and organizations. RELATED: 'Gaza Blockade is legitimate' No need for aid Flotillas, says Blair PM: Easing Blockade hurts Hamas's PR Mounir el-Barash, director of the donations department in Gaza's Ministry of Health told...

For the Palestinians in Diaspora, The Vision Fades but Won't Die
The Palestine Red Crescent Society put on a show in the Andalus movie theater here the other night to raise funds for brethren caught in the uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip that Arabs call the intifadeh. As part of the show, to the trill of penny whistles and the beat of drums, the Children sang homage to a land called Palestine, a place they had not seen beyond the rose-glow of parental fable, but one they had been taught to cherish. ''The Children,'' said...

Where's the Palestinian Hadassah?
Today's Haaretz Magazine profile of Palestinian filmmaker Rima Essa and her new Documentary on a Palestinian child with Leukemia raises important questions. Essa (and presumably her film) complains mainly about Israel. But she also has harsh words for Palestinian Hospitals. "'At [Israeli Hospital] Hadassah Ein Karem the oncology ward looks very nice and well kept; there’s a playroom and toys and someone who devotes their time to the sick Children. … At the Hospitals in...

Geller: Obama got Cameron to attack Israel
Not surprising. "Obama behind Cameron's attack on Israel, by Pamela Geller in the Daily Caller , July 29: Speaking in Turkey on Tuesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron slammed Israel and called Gaza a "Prison camp." (Apparently Gaza is the first Prison camp with luxury shopping malls.) The British Foreign Office has been taking the blame for this betrayal of Israel, but they're claiming they were as surprised as anyone. Now, a high-placed and knowledgeable source has informed me that it...

Obama behind Cameron’s attack on Israel
Speaking in Turkey on Tuesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron slammed Israel and called Gaza a "Prison camp." (Apparently Gaza is the first Prison camp with luxury shopping malls.) The British Foreign Office has been taking the blame for this betrayal of Israel, but they're claiming they were as surprised as anyone. Now, a high-placed and knowledgeable source has informed me that it was Obama's people who put the slamming of Israel into Cameron's Speech. Cameron also said that...

Israel's "Bomb Iran" Campaign Moves to Paint US into Militarist Corner
Reuel Marc Gerecht's screed justifying an Israeli bombing attack on Iran coincides with the opening the new Israel lobby campaign marked by the introduction of

Israel Hammered By UN On Human Rights
By Yashwanth Manjunath The United Nations came down hard today on Israel. A U.N. panel of experts raised concerns about alleged killings and Torture of Palestinians as well as other forms of Discrimination. The U.N. Human Rights Committee also called today for an end to the Blockade of Gaza , (about time). Furthermore, The Human Rights Committee questioned the “independence” of Israel’s inquiry into the May 31st Flotilla Raid. Apparently the U.N. does not feel that...

Arabs meet on Palestinian peace talks
AFP Arab officials began crucial Talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday to decide whether he will begin direct negotiations with Israel amid pressure from the United States. Abbas began Talks with foreign Ministers and other senior officials from the 13 member countries of the Arab Peace Initiative committee. He was expected to present the results of the US-brokered indirect Talks the Arab League approved in May for a four-month period. Of the 13 member countries, only eight...

Blockade helps Hamas recruit, says ambassador
Israel's three-year Blockade of Gaza has thrust its residents into the embrace of the Islamist group Hamas and created a generation of Palestinians hostile to the Jewish State, according to the departing British ambassador. Sir Tom Phillips told the Jerusalem Post that the Blockade has pushed Gaza "into a Hamas-controlled tunnel economy, and the Palestinian Gaza Private Sector has been almost completely destroyed". "Young boys on the streets [have] no role models apart from the Hamas guy in the...

Who Can Trust Sestak on Israel?
Rep. Joe Sestak’s “shut up” strategy followed by his “I’m really, honestly a friend of Israel” isn’t working. The local media have figured out that Sestak’s Keynote Speech to CAIR is far more revealing than his recent avowals of devotion to the Jewish State. Benyamin Korn writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer : Does it matter if a Candidate for U.S. Senate served as a Keynote Speaker for an Extremist group? Does it matter if he hired one of the...

Rocket from Gaza hits Israeli city, no injuries
Jerusalem (AP) - The Israeli Military says Gaza Militants have fired a rocket into the Israeli city of Ashkelon, a rare strike that caused damage but no injuries. The city was a regular target for Palestinian Militants before Israel's Gaza offensive ended early last year. Since then, Ashkelon has largely been quiet although some rocket and mortar fire from Gaza has continued close to the border. Mayor Benny Vaknin says the rocket hit near a residential building and damaged a large number of...

The Madness of Gaddafi
The true face of Libyan "humanitarianism" reared its ugly head again this week at the unlikely venue of the African Heads of State Summit in Uganda. Only two weeks after sending a ship of supplies to Gaza, ostensibly out of "humanitarian" concern for the curious Palestinian suffering under Israel's alleged tyranny, Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi showed his personal understanding of compassion at the international conference, attended by about 30 African leaders, when he...

Neo-con view (this time on Turkey) still heard loud and clear in Washington
Not surprisingly, given that the Committee on Foreign Affairs head is Democratic Rep. Howard Berman, a self-professed Zionist , a good portion of the testimonies focused on Israel/Palestine and Turkey’s role in the Gaza aid Flotilla. The fact that Turkey is asserting its independence from Western hegemony and taking a stand in support of the Palestinians is worrisome to pro-Israel neo-cons. The hearing follows a stampede of anti-Turkish sentiment expressed by neo-conservatives and by ...

UN Panel Slams Israel on Human Rights
A United Nations panel of experts has raised concerns about alleged Israeli Discrimination against Palestinians, demanding Israel stop targeted killings and alleged Torture. The U.N. Human Rights Committee also called Friday for an end to the Blockade of Gaza. It questioned the independence of Israel's own inquiry into the May 31 naval Raid on a Gaza-bound relief supply ship.

Beware of turks bearing glass houses
Beware of turks bearing glass houses PM David Cameron of England, yesterday, gave a Speech in Turkey in which he pandered to the Islamist Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan, in which he alleged , among other things, that Gaza was a "Prison camp." As is typical of the New York Times's The Lede blog, Robert Mackey takes great delight in highlighting criticisms of Israel . Mackey, at least, posted an objection from the Israeli ambassador, but still the focus of the post is on the condemnation of Israel...

Palestinian women dig for new opportunities in Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) – A group of Palestinian women is breaking new ground in the Gaza Strip by working as ditch-diggers to support their families. Some 300 women have signed up to dig reservoirs on Gaza farms in a project organized by the internationally funded Union of Agriculture Work Committees, UAWC officials said Thursday. Although Gaza women have traditionally worked on family farms, picking fruit and vegetables, this is the first time they have hoisted shovels for a...

Rescuing 40 bathers all in a day's work
Jason Koutsoukis meets one of the world's busiest lifesavers, at Sheikh Aijleen beach in the Gaza Strip. Nasser Abu Mutair is anything but the bronzed wedge of muscle that has to come exemplify surf lifesavers the world over. At 40 years of age, and carrying a sizeable paunch, Abu Mutair prefers to watch over the Gaza Strip's Sheikh Aijleen beach with a Cigarette in one hand and a cordless microphone in the other. When he is not drawing a puff or barking orders at the swimmers crowding between...

Picture This: Go Fly a Kite
In an attempt to break the world record for the most kites flown simultaneously, more than 5,000 Palestinian Children flocked to the beach near the northern town of Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The event was organized and sponsored by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and earned the participants an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. "The kids succeeded in flying 7,202 paper kites that they made themselves," UNRWA's chief in Gaza, John Ging told a Press Conference.