Peace talks pushed past US elections

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TheRealNews

Talks between Israel and PA postponed past US midterm elections despite alleged US concessions.

While on a North America tour promote his new book, The Punishment of Gaza renowned Israeli journalist Gideon Levy spoke in Canada. The Real News’ Lia Tarachansky caught up with him in Toronto to ask him about the expiration of the so-called settlement construction freeze, or moratorium, and the lull in the peace talks between Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. According to David Makovsky of the Washington Institute on Near East Policy, Obama sent Netanyahu a letter offering him major concessions if the Israeli prime minister extends the settlement construction freeze past the U.S. midterm elections. One concessions Obama supposedly offered Netanyahu is the long-term stay of Israeli troops on the soil of the future Palestinian state in the Jordan Valley, a region central in the fight for water and land. However, both Netanyahu and Abbas refused to take a position, passing the ball into the court of the Arab League which in turn postponed taking a position until after the U.S. elections.

Formalizing Israel’s Land Grab by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
August 16, 2010

Time is running out for Israel. And the Israeli government knows it. The Jewish Diaspora, especially the young, has a waning emotional and ideological investment in Israel. The demographic boom means that Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories will soon outnumber Jews. And Israel’s increasing status as a pariah nation means that informal and eventually formal state sanctions against the country are probably inevitable.

Mustafa Barghouti on the rising non-violent movement in Palestine (updated)

Palestinian Loss of Land 1946 to 2005

Info-map orders: PIAG

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Update: 7.20.10 added Part 2

Update: 7.19.10 replaced video

[Note: video taken down by TRNN; will replace it when a new one becomes available.]

TheRealNews | July 17, 2010

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti on Palestinian political dynamics and the realities of Middle East Peace

Jerusalem is NOT ‘disputed’ territory by Jeremy R. Hammond

by Jeremy R. Hammond
Featured Writer
DandelionSalad
Jeremy R. Hammond
13 July, 2010

Here’s the Washington Post on the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem, emphasis added:

Ever since the administration was blindsided by Israel’s March 9 announcement that it intends to build 1,600 housing units in a disputed area of Jerusalem, U.S. officials have pressed Israel to take actions to encourage Palestinians to attend indirect talks, including canceling the project, making concrete gestures such as a prisoner release and adding substantive rather than procedural issues to the agenda for talks. Some U.S. requests have not been made public.

Toy Israeli Houses for Italian Kids, Destroyed Homes for Palestinian Children

Sent to DS from Stephanie Westbrook
Rome Palestinian Solidarity Network
July 10, 2010

photo by Rome Palestinian

Solidarity Network

That was the heading on the leaflet distributed at the Iper Coop in Rome, Italy on July 9, 2010, marking the fifth anniversary of the launch campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. While the systematic demolition of Palestinian homes by Israel continues, the Italian hypermarket instead sells colorful and cheerful plastic toy houses, in addition to children’s chairs, tables and slides, produced by the Israeli company Keter and marketed in Italy by Giochi Preziosi and Grand Soleil.

In Washington-Speak, “Palestinian State” Means “Fried Chicken” By Noam Chomsky

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By Noam Chomsky
TomDispatch
April 27, 2010

A Middle East Peace That Could Happen But Won’t

The fact that the Israel-Palestine conflict grinds on without resolution might appear to be rather strange. For many of the world’s conflicts, it is difficult even to conjure up a feasible settlement. In this case, it is not only possible, but there is near universal agreement on its basic contours: a two-state settlement along the internationally recognized pre-June 1967 borders — with “minor and mutual modifications,” to adopt official U.S. terminology before Washington departed from the international community in the mid-1970s.

The Wall/Fence in Bil’in: 2005-2010 by Eileen Fleming

by Eileen Fleming
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
April 24, 2010

“They’re building a wall. A wall to keep distant the terrible sound of the houses that crumble and the children that die. A wall to keep separate the truth from the lie.” — Dave Rovics, “They’re Building a Wall”

The fifth Bil’in International Conference “on popular resistance to network and strategize in support to end the Israeli occupation and free Palestine” concluded on Friday, April 23^rd with five demonstrators arrested and one Israeli activist taking a direct hit into the forehead which fractured his skull after Israeli soldiers shot him with a tear gas projectile.

A ‘Regrettable’ Event in East Jerusalem By Noam Chomsky

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By Noam Chomsky
In These Times
April 1, 2010

Yet again the flashpoint is East Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the 1967 war—this time, a proposed 1,600-apartment complex in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood. And yet again the aftermath has led to the death of Palestinians by Israeli gunfire.

On March 9, the Israeli interior ministry announced the new project during U.S. Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s visit to Israel. President Obama had called for curbing settlement expansion in occupied territory.

Reaction was immediate and intense. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly apologized for the announcement’s “regrettable” timing but insisted that Israel could build freely in East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the territories it intends to annex.

[…]

via A ‘Regrettable’ Event in East Jerusalem — In These Times

see

Is The U.S. Incapable Of Standing Up To Israel?

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Noam Chomsky on Dandelion Salad

UN rights body condemns Israel

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UN rights body condemns Israel
PressTV
March 24, 2010

The United Nations Human Rights Council has passed three resolutions in condemnation of Israel’s “grave human rights violations” in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The United States, however, voted against the resolutions, which condemned Israel over its policies related to Palestinian and Syrian territories, Haaretz reported.

One of the resolutions which harshly denounced “human rights violations” by the Israeli military forces, called for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories.

Michael Ratner on Israeli Apartheid

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Updated: added Part 2

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Michael Ratner reports on his recent visit to the West Bank