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Middle East: Dark Plots Afoot? A quiet meeting this past March in Saudi Arabia, and a recent anonymous leak from the Israeli military, set the stage for what may be a new and wider war in the Middle East.

Middle East: Dark Plots Afoot?

Gathering in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh were Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, newly crowned Saudi King Salman, and the organizer of the get-together, the emir of Qatar. The meeting was an opportunity for Turkey and the Saudis to bury a hatchet over Ankara’s support — which Riyadh’s opposes — to the Muslim Brotherhood, and to agree to cooperate in overthrowing the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. Taking Aim at Assad. 48 Years On, A Simple Guide To Understanding The Israeli Occupation. The situation between us today is like the complex relationship between a Bedouin man and a girl he has abducted against her will.

48 Years On, A Simple Guide To Understanding The Israeli Occupation

But once they have children, the children will recognise the man as their father and the woman as their mother. The original act of abduction will mean nothing to them. You Palestinians, as a nation, do not want us today, but we will change your attitude by forcing our presence on you. - Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Dayan In June 1967, Israel won a brief war it fought with Jordan, Syria and Egypt. New Greens Boss Richard Di Natale Forced To Clarify Israel Stance. New Greens leader Richard Di Natale has been forced to clarify his position on Israel and Palestine after apparently accidentally aligning his party with right wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

New Greens Boss Richard Di Natale Forced To Clarify Israel Stance

In a widely shared article in the Australian Jewish News, Di Natale was reported as saying that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas must acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Independent Australian Jewish Voices. As Carlill wrote an extensive response, with reference to issues that have long been matters of scholarly record, I thought it important to document the failings of what he wrote.

Independent Australian Jewish Voices

His response was 2 000 words, much of it extremely problematic, often making blanket assertions, despite a vast corpus of contrary evidence and scholarship. I can only hope to sample the problems with his rendering of empirical issues, such as the 1948 war (or as he prefers, the 1947-49 war, or War of Independence). I’ve provided subheadings, for organisational reasons, to make plain areas where I took exception to what he wrote. The first is the issue of ethnic cleansing. I think it should be made plain – I do not support ethnic cleansing, and regard support for it as racist. Germany subsidizes sale of four warships to Israel. Netanyahu slips, Reveals reason for Opposition to Iran Deal. Wikileaks Sony Hack Reveals Hollywood’s Hand In Repairing Israel’s Broken Image. The WikiLeaks archive reveals how some of Hollywood’s top players want to combat the negative publicity of last summer’s brutal war on Gaza and link the pro-Palestine movement to anti-Semitism.

Wikileaks Sony Hack Reveals Hollywood’s Hand In Repairing Israel’s Broken Image

US actors Natalie Portman, right, and Scarlett Johansson, both implicated in the leaked Sony emails, attend a royal film Premiere in central London. CULVER CITY, California — A MintPress News analysis of emails contained in WikiLeaks archive of the Sony Hack reveals how Hollywood executives are working to repair Israel’s public image in the wake of the savage death toll from last summer’s Operation Protective Edge offensive against Gaza. This includes a proposed documentary which would attempt to tie support for Palestine to anti-semitic violence in Europe and the United States.

The Less We Know, The Deeper The Ignorance On Israel. A lot of column inches have been filled in covering the recent Israeli’s election and the late charge by Benjamin Netanyahu that gave his Likud party the majority in the Knesset (Israeli parliament).

The Less We Know, The Deeper The Ignorance On Israel

Bad business. Peter Oborne's resignation from the Daily Telegraph, revealed on openDemocracy, asks fundamental questions about corporate influence over the media.

Bad business

UKUncut protest, Demotix openDemocracy has broken the news that Peter Oborne, the influential chief political commentator at Britain’s Daily Telegraph, has resigned. He does so with sadness and gives his reasons for doing so here. He believes the UK’s leading conservative newspaper has ignored or downplayed stories damaging to HSBC, and that it is letting advertising priorities shape some of its editorial judgements.

The Israeli version of Steven Salaita: Occupation University fires Professor for Insufficient Zionism. By Amir Hetsroni This is how I became the Israeli version of Steven Salaita: I was teaching at Ariel University when administrators summoned me to a pre-dismissal disciplinary hearings claiming that my views on religion (too atheist), welfare (overly capitalist), gender (not enough feminist) and Zionism (not Zionist and willing to withdraw from practically all the occupied territories) are not in line with the university’s public image.

The Israeli version of Steven Salaita: Occupation University fires Professor for Insufficient Zionism

Dozens of professors from various Israeli universities and colleges petitioned against this step, and several protest articles and social network statuses were published. Palestine, the Political Football: Good Enough For Soccer, Not Good Enough For Statehood. Immediately prior to New Years 2015 there were two significant developments in Australia-Palestine relations.

Palestine, the Political Football: Good Enough For Soccer, Not Good Enough For Statehood

On December 30, the Australian government rejected a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for the end of Israel’s occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the creation of an independent Palestinian state within three years. Less than a day later, over a hundred enthusiastic Australians welcomed the Palestinian national soccer team to Australia for the AFC Asian Cup. There is an important contradiction at play here. Australia's UN vote on Palestine does a disservice to all sides, including Israelis. More Australians winced than applauded when they learned of their country’s very last vote at the end of its two year term on the security council.

Australia's UN vote on Palestine does a disservice to all sides, including Israelis

On 29 December Australia was one of only two nations to vote against a Jordanian draft resolution designed to hasten a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. How Israel Covers Up Its Ugly Racial Holy War. The year 2014 will be remembered as a banner year for violence in Israel and Palestine; most of the casualties occurred in the Gaza Strip, and most of these were Palestinian civilians killed by the Israeli army. Six months later, however, these tragic deaths are almost forgotten, chiefly because the powerful propaganda of the Israel lobby is able to explain them away with a well-rehearsed narrative: “Israel only wants to live in peace with its neighbors, but the Palestinians hope to kick us all out of the country, so we have no choice but to retaliate.” Zionist hasbara can be even further condensed, distilled down to just six words: “They hate us for our equality.” Within Israel, however, the messages emanating from the government have been nothing if not the diametric opposite of these platitudes.

Anti-Palestinian incitement has always existed in Israeli politics, but in 2014 this racist discourse took a sharp turn for the worse. Politicide in Gaza: How Israel's Far Right Won the War. At the end of the fifty-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, neither Israel nor Hamas had achieved their stated goals there: the armed resistance was still standing (despite the massive damage the territory and its people sustained) and the crippling Israeli siege was not lifted. Rather, this essay argues, it was Israel’s far right that emerged the victor.

Top 5 Five reasons 2014 was a game-changer for Palestine. By Ramzy Baroud | (Ma’an News Agency) — In terms of losses in human lives, 2014 has been a horrific year for Palestinians, surpassing the horrors of both 2008 and 2009, when an Israeli war against the Gaza Strip killed and wounded thousands. While some aspects of the conflict are stagnating between a corrupt, ineffectual Palestinian Authority, and the criminality of Israeli wars and occupation, it would also be fair to argue that 2014 was also a game changer to some degree — and it is not all bad news. Folke Bernadotte. Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (Swedish: Greve af Wisborg; 2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish diplomat and nobleman. During World War II he negotiated the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps including 450 Danish Jews from the Theresienstadt camp. They were released on 14 April 1945.[1][2][3] In 1945, he received a German surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler, though the offer was ultimately rejected.

Early life[edit] Israeli cabinet approves legislation defining nation-state of Jewish people. Facts All US Citizens Need to Know About Israel and Palestine Washington's Blog. New revelations in attack on American spy ship - Baltimore Sun. Bryce Lockwood, Marine staff sergeant, Russian-language expert, recipient of the Silver Star for heroism, ordained Baptist minister, is shouting into the phone. New Evidence Proves Israel Attacked USS Liberty With Orders to Kill 294 Americans. Nightmare in Gaza. Under cover of reconstruction, UN and PA become enforcers of Israel's Gaza siege. The Islamic State and the Jewish State.

In the final days of 'Operation Protective Edge' Israel focused on its final goal. Israeli activists wave ISIL-like flags in protest of immigrant detention policy. Articles By Alison Weir. Israelis torturing non-Jewish children. 2014 Australian documentary film. Viewer discretion. An Israeli Walks For Palestinians And BDS. Israeli intelligence veterans refuse to serve in Palestinian territories. US Financial Aid To Israel - Figures, Facts And Impact. Disaster capitalism: Israel as warning. UEFA punishes football fans for Palestine solidarity.