By Max Blumenthal. Alternet – On July 10, Democratic Representative Kathy Castor of Florida’s Tampa Bay area issued an impassioned plea for the protection of endangered manatees. At the same time, she remained conspicuously silent about the brutal beating and ongoing detention of one of her constituents by a foreign government. Tarek Abu Khdeir, a 15-year-old Palestinian-American […]
By Uri Avnery. Counterpunch – Bombs are raining on Gaza and rockets on Southern Israel, people are dying and homes are being destroyed. Again. Again without any purpose. Again with the certainty that after it’s all over, everything will essentially be the same as it was before. But I can hardly hear the sirens which […]
By Mohammed Omer. John Whitbeck’s comment: Transmitted below is a brief personal witness statement from Gaza by my distinguished young friend Mohammed Omer. Some of you may recall Mohammed’s article, which I circulated on March 29, regarding his excruciatingly difficult experience exiting Gaza with his seriously pregnant wife. I later had the pleasure of seeing […]
Al-Akhbar – Updated August 1 at 00:32 pm (GMT+3): The Gaza health ministry has confirmed the deaths of at least 1,441 Palestinians in the besieged strip since Israel began its relentless assault on July 8. Among those killed, at least 324 were aged 18 or younger. At least 12 children were killed by Israeli forces on Monday, […]
France 24 – With 40,000 military reservists called up, another ground offensive by Israel against Gaza seems likely. The kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank and the revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager that followed have provoked a situation that had been brewing since the recent failure of US-brokered peace […]
By Phillip Giraldi. UNZ – The United States military should consider itself lucky that it only has Bowe Bergdahl. During the Vietnam War nearly 420,000 soldiers deserted, which means that they left their posts without any intent to return or failed to show up for deployment. Those who were gone for more than a month were administratively categorized as […]
The Jewish Daily Forward – Two French Jews were sent to prison for placing a bomb in 2012 under the car of an anti-Zionist journalist in Paris. The two men, identified only by their last names, Bismuth and Benhamou, were sentenced on June 20 by a judge from the Versailles Correctional Tribunal to six months […]
John Whitbeck’s commentary: Transmitted below is a thoughtful article by Stephen Kinzer on America’s destructive role in the world and its consequences for the United States and the world. My only quibble with this article is the assertion that the “intended result” of America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq was “to prevent Iraq from becoming a […]
The House’s Defense Appropriations Bill gives the Iron Dome anti-missile system $131 million more than funding in the previous fiscal year provided. Haaretz – The U.S. House of Representatives increased funding for Israel’s missile defense systems. Included in the House’s Defense Appropriations Bill approved last week is $351 million for the Iron Dome anti-missile system, […]
By Robert Fantina. Counterpunch – The media is reporting that three teenagers living in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine are missing, and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated, on evidence he has not chosen to share, that they have been kidnapped by Hamas. In response, he has unleashed a new level of terrorism against Palestinians […]
