The case for truth and reconciliation

Should individuals who have worked for imperialism and State terror or even with fascistic violent groups be allowed to repent? Should we forgive?

News In Brief : Self-censorship at the UN

DemocracyNow!

Reparations, Israel Dropped from UN Racism Text

Negotiators drafting the declaration for next month’s UN Conference Against Racism have acceded to US and European Union demands and dropped references to Israel and reparations for slavery. The Obama administration has vowed to boycott the conference unless the two issues are dropped from conference text.

BBC ignores palestinian-israeli press

BBC

The Arabic press contains widespread scepticism that the general election in Israel will offer any impetus for change in regional relations, irrespective of the result.

Opinion polls suggest that there is little to choose between the incumbent Kadima party, headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and the right-wing Likud, led by Binyamin Netanyahu. One commentator in the UAE expressed concern that this would provide the far-right Avigdor Lieberman, whose popularity has soared recently, with a decisive role in the formation of a government.

Commentaries in Jordan, Syria and the UAE feared that the election would see the appointment to power of Israeli "extremists". One Palestinian writer said that the victory of the Israeli right would "push Palestinians to stand by Hamas", while another questioned how the new US administration would handle the situation.

Basim Abu-Samiyyah in Palestinian daily Al-Hayat al-Jadidah

The Israeli right that is crawling to power will reveal the weakness and double standards of the international community. It will also push us Palestinians to stand by Hamas.

Rajab Abu-Surayyah in Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam

The Israeli elections might demonstrate the reality... that Israel is a right-wing state par excellence. This will form a challenge to the new US administration, made up of Democrats who dream of a global policy that starts by solving the thorny Middle East conflicts.

Id Abu-Sikkah in Syria's Al-Ba'th

It is expected that Israel's policy will go from bad to worse, because those who will control it are fiercer than [the previous administration] who snapped at the bodies of children, women and old men in Gaza.

Ali Qasim in Syria's Al-Thawrah

Extremism will be the winner and peace, which Israelis have not yet been able to accept, will remain the loser for quite some time.

Mazin Hammad in Qatar's Al-Watan

Regardless of who will win, the differences between the right, left and centre [of Israel's politics] are not clear for those who closely watch the election from outside. They all pounce on Palestinian blood.

Rashid Hasan in Jordan's Al-Dustur

The victory of extremists, with [Likud Party leader Binyamin] Netanyahu in the lead, would mean that the situation - i.e. the settlement and the so-called peace process - will return to square one... The Israeli state was built on massacres and genocides committed by Zionist gangs... Therefore, it is not strange if extremists win.

Abd-al-Wahab Badrakhan in the UAE's Al-Ittihad

The horrible Avigdor [Lieberman] will have a decisive role as he will be the one who decides and controls whoever will lead the government after elections. The emergence of the Lieberman phenomenon... represents an inclination to extremism in [Israeli] society.

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.

They did it before.

For the benefit of the BBC and any one else who may be interested, here is a site which includes israeli newspapers (including arabic ones). There is also Al Ittihad and no doubt others not mentioned.

A post from the blogosphere (the world of evil private individuals)

Figaro-Pravda

Extract:

I don't know when Americans became such a cowardly people. Afraid of terrorists after 9/11? I can understand that, of course - even if ultimately we figure out that we trained and financed a lot of those terrorists back in the day with our wonderful covert military-industrial foresight. Afraid of our daughters and sons dying in an interminable war? Again, I find that a reasonable danger to be afraid of. But afraid of traffic jams?

From triumph to torture

Rafah Today
Guardian
Extract:

"I realised," said Mohammed, "he was after the award stipend for the Martha Gellhorn prize. I told him I didn't have it with me. 'You are lying', he said. I was now surrounded by eight Shin Bet officers, all armed. The man called Avi ordered me to take off my clothes. I had already been through an x-ray machine. I stripped down to my underwear and was told to take off everything. When I refused, Avi put his hand on his gun. I began to cry: 'Why are you treating me this way? I am a human being.' He said, 'This is nothing compared with what you will see now.' He took his gun out, pressing it to my head and with his full body weight pinning me on my side, he forcibly removed my underwear. He then made me do a concocted sort of dance. Another man, who was laughing, said, 'Why are you bringing perfumes?' I replied, 'They are gifts for the people I love'. He said, 'Oh, do you have love in your culture?'

"As they ridiculed me, they took delight most in mocking letters I had received from readers in England. I had now been without food and water and the toilet for 12 hours, and having been made to stand, my legs buckled. I vomited and passed out. All I remember is one of them gouging, scraping and clawing with his nails at the tender flesh beneath my eyes. He scooped my head and dug his fingers in near the auditory nerves between my head and eardrum. The pain became sharper as he dug in two fingers at a time. Another man had his combat boot on my neck, pressing into the hard floor. I lay there for over an hour. The room became a menagerie of pain, sound and terror."

An ambulance was called and told to take Mohammed to a hospital, but only after he had signed a statement indemnifying the Israelis from his suffering in their custody. The Palestinian medic refused, courageously, and said he would contact the Dutch embassy escort. Alarmed, the Israelis let the ambulance go. The Israeli response has been the familiar line that Mohammed was "suspected" of smuggling and "lost his balance" during a "fair" interrogation, Reuters reported yesterday.

Israeli human rights groups have documented the routine torture of Palestinians by Shin Bet agents with "beatings, painful binding, back bending, body stretching and prolonged sleep deprivation". Amnesty has long reported the widespread use of torture by Israel, whose victims emerge as mere shadows of their former selves. Some never return. Israel is high in an international league table for its murder of journalists, especially Palestinian journalists, who receive barely a fraction of the kind of coverage given to the BBC's Alan Johnston.

Or Gilad Shalit. Or Ingrid Bétancourt. Or all the other Israeli and 'western' hostages. In his song "Lily", Pierre Perret sang "pour Debussy, en revanche, il faut deux noires pour une blanche" ("for Debussy, however, two blacks are worth one white"). How many Palestinians are worth one Israeli or one 'westerner'?

Chief Rabbi holds forth

To Chief Rabbi Metzger, I would say don't do what you yourself say you are not legally entitled to do: don't talk politics!
To the EU, the US and Britain, I would say don't pay attention to the racist, sexist and fundamentalist Chief Rabbi Metzger.

Muslims 'don't need a third place Metzger also called for Muslims to have the freedom to return to pray in mosques on condition that they do so peaceably: "We will welcome every Palestinian man who wants to pray in his mosque. Every Friday they can come, but with one condition, without violence. We have the same feeling about prayers, we want to give you respect but let us live and believe our land is the Holy Land and Jerusalem belongs to us. You have another place, Mecca and Medina, you don't need a third place."