..Current and Forecast Weather for Manhattan
For other cities in North America (and trip planner), type location in top line at this link.

- Democracy Now with Amy Goodman | TV Channel

- America's #1 Populist Jim Hightower On Air

- Mark Fiore Animated Political Cartoons ^

- Documentary - Bilderberg and the Obama Deception
^

Jewish TV Network ^

---

Top Stories

Point / Counterpoint: A World Gone Mad ^
The Jerusalem Post Blog - Posted by Edwin Bennatan - Thursday, June 3, 2010

I hesitate to go as far as Melanie Phillips, who labels the growing, frenzied international vilification of Israel "a global pogrom in the making." No, it seems to me more like widespread loss of sanity. The general hysteria, not just in the Islamic world but in Europe and the Americas too, brings to mind the words of the late British historian Norman Cohn, written more than a decade ago:

There exists a subterranean world where pathological fantasies disguised as ideas are churned out by crooks and half-educated fanatics for the benefit of the ignorant and superstitious. There are times when this underworld emerges from the depths and suddenly fascinates, captures, and dominates multitudes of usually sane and responsible people, who thereupon take leave of sanity and responsibility. And it occasionally happens that this underworld becomes a political power and changes the course of history."
Editor - Yes, and that can apply to any group of people.Let's face it.

UPDATE | Israel Faces Deepening Tensions With Turkey Over Raid, and Bond With U.S. Frays ^

UPDATE | Days of Planning Led to Flotilla's Hour of Chaos ^

UPDATE | Israeli Navy Seizes Rachel Corrie ^

Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis ^
A thorough rundown.
Think Progress - By Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Zaid Jilani, and Alex Seitz-Wald - Thursday, June 3, 2010

Complete here
This past Monday, the Israeli military intercepted a humanitarian aid convoy in international waters that was headed to the Gaza Strip with the intention of breaking the Israeli blockade to deliver much-needed supplies to the civilian population. After news broke that the interception turned violent and nine people died as protesters and Israeli troops clashed, gigantic protests erupted worldwide and the Israeli raid was met with international condemnation. While the incident of the Freedom Flotilla was tragic enough, it helps highlight an even greater tragedy: the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip resulting from the Israeli and Egyptian-imposed embargo. Despite the fact that the blockade of the Gaza Strip has been in place for nearly three years -- virtually devastating its civil society with "collective punishment" -- Israeli officials and leading American conservatives have repeatedly denied that a humanitarian crisis is taking place. But the truth is that the embargo is inflicting tremendous suffering on Gaza's civilian population while strengthening the hands of the extremists its meant to target.

A BRUTAL BLOCKADE: At the urging of the United States, Palestinians went to the polls in 2006 to vote for new leadership. Disaffected by the ruling Fatah party's corruption, many Palestinians saw Hamas and its extensive social support network as a viable alternative, and Hamas swept the elections. Following a civil war was that encouraged and supported by the Bush administration, Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Israel and Egypt reacted by imposing a "stifling" blockade of the territory. While Israel claims that its embargo is intended to keep weapons shipments out of the hands of Hamas, the flow of all sorts of basic goods, including food and medicine, have been severely restricted from the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in Gaza. Many goods now come through the tunnels at the Egyptian border. The Israeli government acknowledges that it keeps a list of items that are and aren't allowed into Gaza. For example, Israel prohibits the import of chocolate (deemed a "luxury good"), fabrics, notebooks, and some toys, but allows the importation of plastic buckets or combs. Perhaps even more disturbingly, the Israeli human rights group Gisha discovered that the government maintains a document that "apparently determines the minimum nutritional needs of Gaza's population, according to caloric intake and grams of food, parsed by age and gender," suggesting that the Israelis may be intentionally tightly controlling the Gazan population's diet. (In 2006, an adviser to then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the idea behind an embargo would be to "put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.") The effect of the embargo has been devastating on the civilian population, 44 percent of which is under the age of 15. A year into the embargo, a coalition of human rights organizations released a "scathing"report that found that, as a result of the blockade, "hospitals are suffering from power cuts of up to 12 hours a day, and sewage systems were closed to collapse, with 40-50 million liters of sewage pouring into the sea daily."

The U.N. agency in charge of aiding Palestinians finds that the number of Gazans who are unable to "buy basic items such as soap, stationary, and safe drinking water has tripled since 2007." According to U.N. statistics, "about 70% of Gazans live on less than $1 a day, 75% rely on food aid, and 60% have no daily access to water." The humanitarian agency Oxfam found that most houses in Gaza were going "without power for 35-60 hours a week." The blockade has strengthened Hamas by bolstering the tunnel economy, through which various contraband items are smuggled into Gaza and decimating the legitimate business community. Speaking from Gaza in April, Bassam Nasser of Catholic Relief Services said "the blockade enabled Hamas to become in complete control of everything in Gaza," and that "closing Gaza and enabling goods or commodities to enter mostly only through the tunnels [has] enabled Hamas to have greater control."

DENYING THE CRISIS: Despite these facts, Israeli officials and various American public figures have either ignored, downplayed, or outright denied the existence of Gaza's humanitarian crisis. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said, "There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. ... The flotilla is an attempt at violent propaganda against Israel, and Israel will not allow the violation of its sovereignty at sea, in the air, or on land." Israel's ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren claimed that "there's no shortage of food. There's no shortage of medicine." Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich brazenly said, "There was no humanitarian crisis; this was a deliberate political effort on the part of people who want to try to undermine the survival of Israel." Syndicated columnist and Fox contributor Charles Krauthammer asked, "What exactly is the humanitarian crisis that the flotilla was actually addressing? There is none. No one is starving in Gaza." When asked by the Progress Report about the blockade, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) "refused to speak directly about whether Israel's blockade is causing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza" and downplayed the harm the embargo is causing. "I don't want to go into a discussion of the blockade on Gaza," she said, "I hope that we can end that by having a resolution in terms of Middle East peace."

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE: Though the Obama administration recognizes that Israel has genuine security concerns in regard to Hamas, it has encouraged Israel to ease some aspects of the blockade. In February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern "at obstacles Israel is placing to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip." Israeli officials have also allowed U.N. officials to begin bringing in construction goods. In the wake of Monday's crisis, many in the international community have called for lifting the blockade to relieve the territory's civilians. Yesterday, conservative UK Prime Minister David Cameron said, "Friends of Israel, and I count myself as a friend of Israel, should be saying to the Israelis that the blockade actually strengthens Hamas's grip on the economy and Gaza and it's in their own interests to lift it and to allow those vital supplies to go through." Both the European Union and Russia have called for the "immediate opening of crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and people to and from Gaza." Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Middle East Bulletin that Israel does have "legitimate" security concerns about "rockets attacking Israeli population centers," yet the "current policy approach to Gaza is counter-productive" because it harms the civilian population and hurts the chances of political settlement. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said, "Had Israelis heeded to my call and to the call of the international community by lifting the blockade of Gaza, this tragic incident would not have happened." Many Israelis, too, oppose their government's policy. In Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper, columnist Aluf Benn wrote, "The attempt to control Gaza from outside, via its residents' diet and shopping lists, casts a heavy moral stain on Israel and increases its international isolation." Benn noted "a list of goods prepared by the Defense Ministry allows cinnamon and plastic buckets into Gaza, but not houseplants and coriander. It's time to find more important things for our officers and bureaucrats to do than update lists."

Meanwhile, international activists are already sending additional aid ships to Gaza, including the MV Rachel Corrie, named after an American activist killed protesting an Israeli home demolition. As Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Brian Katulis has argued, the U.S. should "work with Israeli officials to establish transparent criteria and rationale for allowing the import of food, medicines, and reconstruction material" to the needlessly suffering population of the Gaza Strip. There is some evidence that the Obama administration may be pressuring Israel -- which is the beneficiary of U.S. military aid and political cooperation -- to change course. One U.S. official told the New York Times that "there is no question that we need a new approach" in Gaza. Politico's Ben Smith writes that an anonymous American official told him, "The Gaza policy is bankrupt and needs to be changed."

Gaza Boat Activists Deny Israeli Story ^
Consortium News - By Dennis Bernstein and Jesse Strauss - Friday, June 4. 201

With a bloody raid on the “Freedom Flotilla,” Israel has demonstrated, once again, its willingness to kill innocents in order to sustain its punishing blockade on the Gaza strip, even when doing so raises more and more questions about nuclear-armed Israel’s national sanity.
Scholar Norman Finkelstein, author of a new book on Israel’s 2008-09 assault on Gaza entitled “This Time We’ve Gone Too Far,” deemed the attack on the six ships in international waters that left nine people dead Monday the actions of a “demented... lunatic state.”

According to survivors -- who include a former ambassador, a Nobel laureate and several well-known human rights activists -- the Israeli commandos came heavily armed with explosives and automatic weapons, and some opened fire from the air before landing on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-flagged vessel leading the flotilla.

However, Israeli officials offered a competing narrative of a peaceful initiative that only went wrong because of the physical resistance from activists on the ships. The government’s version was that the commandos were armed primarily with paint-ball guns.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also was unapologetic about the lethal assault, claiming that the embargo is justified by fears that military-related items could be smuggled into Gaza.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Netanyahu said, “We will never apologize for defending ourselves,” adding: “I'm very proud of what our soldiers did...This was a hate boat. These weren't pacifists or peace activists.”

Among those offering a contradictory account was Ed Peck, a former U.S. ambassador and deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism during the Reagan administration, who was on board the Sfendoni vessel of the Freedom Flotilla.

“The first thing we knew was the sound of footsteps, and my eye lids flicked open, and there they were, heavily armed,” said Peck, who was one of the first hostages to be released. “The Israeli government keeps referring to the paint guns, but the paint guns were attached to the automatic weapons and the stun grenades and the pepper spray and the tasers and everything else that these guys carry.”

While the Israelis claim they were attacked violently by Al Qaeda and Hamas-connected “terrorists,” very few soldiers were wounded, and none died. Israeli officials showed off knives and some home-made weapons that allegedly were used by the Mavi Marmara defenders. No firearms were found on the ships.

Israel Attacked a NATO Member's Ship on the High Seas ^
Consortium News - By Craig Murray - Thursday, June 3, 2010

CN Editor’s Note: A complication from Israel’s attack on six boats trying to take relief supplies to Gaza is the fact that the killing of nine activists occurred on a Turkish-flagged ship, the Mavi Marmara, and Turkey is a NATO member with the same right to claim collective defense as the United States did after the 9/11 attacks.
In this guest essay, former British Ambassador Craig Murray, a Law of the Sea expert, recounts what he’s hearing from other diplomats at NATO headquarters:

NATO HQ in Brussels is a very unhappy place. There is a strong understanding among the various national militaries that an attack by Israel on a NATO member flagged ship in international waters is an event to which NATO is obliged - legally obliged, as a matter of treaty - to react.

I must be plain - nobody wants or expects military action against Israel. But there is an uneasy recognition that in theory that ought to be on the table, and that NATO is obliged to do something robust to defend Turkey.

Mutual military support of each other is the entire raison d'etre of NATO. You must also remember that to the NATO military the freedom of the high seas guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is a vital alliance interest which officers have been conditioned to uphold their whole career.

That is why Turkey was extremely shrewd in reacting immediately to the Israeli attack by calling an emergency NATO meeting. It is why, after the appalling U.S. reaction to the attack with its refusal to name Israel, President Barack Obama has now made a point of phoning President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to condole.

Video | Al Jazeera Reporter: Israel Fired on Gaza -Bound Ship Before Boarding ^

The reporter and producer for the Arabic news organization Al Jazeera who was on board the Gaza-bound aid flotilla during Monday's deadly raid gave a firsthand account of the grisly scene aboard the ship to the network Thursday.

First-Hand Account of Israeli Assault ^
Consortium News - By Dennis Bernstein and Jessie Strauss - Thursday, June 3, 2010

Complete here
CN Editor’s Note: Early on Monday, Israeli commandos descended on a convoy of humanitarian aid vessels in international waters, dubbed the Freedom Flotilla. Filled with over 700 activists and 10,000 tons of aid destined for Gaza, the boats were captured and their passengers either killed or seized and taken to Israel’s port in Ashdod.

Huwaida Arraf was one of those kidnapped activists, on board a US-flagged vessel called Challenger 1. In the following interview on Wednesday, Arraf recounted her experience during the commando attack, in Israeli detention, and her brutal release:

Dennis Bernstein: First of all, how are you doing? How are you feeling?

Huwaida Arraf: A little bruised, but no complaints. I'm okay, I'm just worried about the rest of my colleagues, especially those that are in hospitals who we don't have complete information about. I'm definitely devastated about the loss of lives that was completely unnecessary.

DB: Do you have any information now about who died … and how many are wounded?

HA: Unfortunately not yet, and I just spoke to the lawyer that we have coordinating visitations to everybody that is still held, whether in a hospital or in jail here, and he said that they're desperately trying to ascertain this information from the Israelis, and the Israelis are not being forthcoming — denying information when actually the lawyers go to the hospitals to try to check up on people to find out where they are, who they are, how they are doing. They [the lawyers] are not being allowed access.

DB: We've seen a lot from the Israelis, we've seen some edited tape, the story is that these commandos came under fire, under attack, that they were violently assaulted and thrown over the side of the ships, which left them no choice but to defend themselves. You were on one of these ships, you were with a lot of people who have seen a lot. Give us your best shot in terms of what you understand happened here.

HA: I was on board the Challenger 1, which was an American flagged vessel, the smallest travelling in the six vessel flotilla. We were supposed to have nine, but we had some problems with a couple of the other ones, and they were held back. We had suspected sabotage, and actually a statement made by the Israelis today confirms that it was sabotage. We weren't saying anything before, but that's not going to hold those vessels back, they will eventually travel to Gaza.

Anyway, that's why we had six vessels instead of three more that we had planned to have. Approximately halfway between Cypress and Gaza, about 100 miles off the coast of Gaza, the Israeli navy started radioing the various vessels on the Flotilla, and we responded providing the information they had asked for as to who we were, what flag we were sailing under, where we came from, where we were going.

Then they started issuing threats and saying that we were navigating into a blockaded area and demanding that we turn around, saying that if we don't turn around they would be prepared to use all necessary means in order to enforce the blockade.

We communicated to them over the VHF radio reiterating who we were, stressing that we were unarmed civilians carrying only humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip. We repeated this over and over again and let them know that we constitute no threat to them whatsoever so they should not use force against us, and they would not be justified in using any kind of force against these unarmed vessels.

A few hours later at about four or four-thirty in the morning their naval ships started approaching us. On our vessel we were planning to defend our ship to the best of our capability just using our bodies. We didn't have any weapons or anything, so that when we heard they were coming we all deployed outside the vessel, at which point I could see the beginnings of the attack on the Turkish ship, the Marmara, because we were traveling almost side by side with it.

I saw the Israeli naval zodiacs approach that ship, I heard explosions which I took to be concussion grenades because they later used them on our ship also. These concussion grenades are sound bombs, and then shooting. I don't know if it was rubber-coated bullets, live ammunition, or what kind, but there definitely was shooting coming from the Israelis toward the ship before they even boarded, and then I saw a helicopter overhead. That's all really all that I was able to see before our vessel took off.

We had planned to stay together and help each other as much as possible, but even the captain of the Turkish ship told us to go on ahead and told us to get the news out that we were under attack, and that's what we did. We tried to race ahead to prevent or at least delay the takeover of our ship until we could communicate to people what was happening. We tried to outrun the Israeli naval vessels that were chasing us, and we were only able to do that for about ten minutes.

Unfortunately during that time we were unable to get any information out because our satellites were jammed, and then our boat was taken over. Israeli commandos came up on the side of the boat, and like I said, we tried to defend basically by putting our bodies up against the railings where they were trying to jump on [to our vessel]. They used sound bombs that exploded on deck and they also used tazers to subdue people, for lack of a better word.

As much as we could we scrambled to prevent them from getting into the boat. They smashed the glass doors of the boat to get in, and beat people down that tried to get in their way. A young volunteer from Belgium, she had her face bloodied. There was at least one dog, also, that I saw on the ship as they were wrestling people down.

DB: Did you say a dog? Like an attack dog?

HA: Yes. To be fair, he was muzzled, but it was definitely an attack dog. And they proceeded to beat us down and to, and like I said, subdue us. At one point my head was slammed against the back end and a soldier was stepping and stomping on my head while they were tying my hands behind my back, and then they put a bag over my head and dragged me to a different area of the boat, so I didn't see exactly how much more they did to my colleagues, but after about 15 minutes they had taken over the boat.

At that point, they started steering the boat to the Israeli port of Ashdod. They pulled us all into one room. After they had taken over the boat, they uncuffed us, and just had us all in one room. I should note that one of the first things they went after were all of our cameras, all of our phones, any kind of communication or recording devices.

As I was cuffed, they were going into my pockets to look for phones, and they did find a phone in my pocket, and then to keep it away from them for a while I did shove the phone down my pants thinking they wouldn't go in, but they did hold me down and have a female officer come and actually reach down and get the phone.

They took all those communication devices, and then at a certain point, after they already had the boat taken over, and they gathered us in one room and took our cuffs off, they started video-taping, presumably to create their own version of the story. That's what happened on our ship.

DB: Once you reached port, what happened?

HA: We reached Ashdod maybe three or four hours later. We protested getting off the ship—we told them we considered ourselves kidnapped from international waters, we were not headed towards Israel, we don’t want to be in Israel, we are not getting off the ship; at which point they started pulling and dragging people, lifting us up by hands and feet and carrying us off the ship.

I was the last one off the ship and I was separated from the others, so after that I didn’t see anybody else. I would assume all of us—but I was put through interrogation, patched from officer to officer for a few hours.

DB: What kind of questions were they asking you? What kind of information were they seeking?

HA: Basically what happened on the ship, my version of the story; but I didn’t answer any of their questions. I told them I wouldn’t answer any questions until I get to see a lawyer and/or a consul representative, and I repeated the same thing: “Your armed and masked men kidnapped me, brought me here—I don’t want to be here—and I need to see a lawyer before I answer any of your questions.” And indeed they were masked. They never took their masks off their faces for one second.

DB: They were all wearing masks as you were interrogated?

HA: Not the interrogators, but the commandos who jumped on our ship, they were all wearing masks. They were all heavily armed and wearing masks, and they never lifted their masks. After a few hours of interrogation, they decided to let me go.

As I also hold Israeli citizenship they can’t really deport me, they either have to prosecute me or let me go, and I’m guessing they didn’t want to draw any more attention to what they’ve done—a very bloody operation that didn’t have to happen, that led to the loss of lives, all to enforce an illegal and immoral and lethal blockade on the civilians living in the Gaza Strip.

They decided to let me go at a certain point, which I also protested because I didn’t want to leave my colleagues, and at the same time they had all my personal belongings, from my money to my phone, my watch—everything; and I asked them to at least give that back to me, and they refused and forced me into a police van, literally, by pulling me up by my hair and my hands and feet and beating me in order to get me into the van.

They drove me out of the port, stopped the car at some point—I’m not sure where because I was a little bit disoriented after being punched in the face and the jaw, and then they just opened the door and threw me out of the van.

DB: They just sort of left you on the side of the road?

HA: I don’t even know exactly where it was honestly. I think I must have passed out for a little bit, because the next thing I knew there was a medic taking me into an ambulance. I was taken to a hospital and checked and released just a few hours later.

DB: Where was the hospital? Where were you taken?

HA: The hospital is in Ashkelon, which is near Ashdod—near the city near Ashdod where the port was. I know they’re saying they were trying to be nice and non-violent, which is not true at all, and this is what happened to us on our boat. We didn’t put up any resistance, it was a small boat, there were only seventeen people on it; it was unnecessary use of violence; and this is all from personal experience.

I, thankfully, am okay and not complaining about any of my injuries, just concerned about my colleagues and saddened by the loss of life. We repeated to Israel and Israeli authorities over and over again: “We do not constitute any kind of threat to them, and therefore there is no reason to use force against us.” And yet they decided to attack us the way they did, again, which resulted in an unfortunate loss of life.

DB: Here’s what Prime Minister Netanyahu said Wednesday morning at a press conference, “This was a hate boat. These weren’t pacifists or peace activists.” He then went on to say “we will never apologize for defending ourselves. We are very proud of what our soldiers did.” Your response?

HA: He is proud of the soldiers’ attack on an unarmed ship and aid convoy, and killed people. What does that say about Netanyahu and all of Israel’s policies? These are the policies that we’re urging people to stand up against.

One of the things they’ve been saying is that “we’ve offered to take the cargo from the Flotilla and we’ll take it to Gaza ourselves,” is what Israel is saying, which is completely ingenuous because the cargo we were carrying is precisely the kind of cargo and materials that Israel has not let into Gaza for three years, basic things like reconstruction supplies, school supplies, toys for kids, water filtration systems.

These are all things that Israel denies the people of Gaza as part of their policy of collective punishment, which is what we’re trying to mobilize the world against. We wanted to get this cargo into Gaza, and Israel was not going to let it pass through Gaza, because if they did they would have been letting it through without us. At the same time, not only did we want to get this cargo to Gaza, but we wanted to challenge this policy that leaves Palestinians in need of humanitarian aid.

We are not interested in perpetuating an aid cycle because it is exactly what Israel has been doing. It has reduced Palestinians to a state where they need to live on handouts. Eighty percent of the population of Gaza is food aid dependent, so it’s not enough just to deliver aid or to campaign for an increase in the aid that reaches Gaza. We have to challenge the policy that leaves Palestinians in need of this aid; and the violence that Israel used against us this time will not deter us.

We are now ascertaining the condition of all of the people that survived and mourning the loss of lives, but everyone is determined to continue on this path, and it really is a growing movement of people that are ready to take action—not with guns or anything else, but by exposing the brutality, the policies that Israel has been perpetuating for so long.

DB: Huwaida, one of the most punishing parts of this from my perspective is that after you wound so many people and kill—we don’t know because these are all Israeli statistics and information because they’ve seized control of that—but eight, nine, ten people dead, dozens wounded, and they’re not even telling the families who is dead, who is wounded, where they are.

Any thoughts on what’s happening with these people, with the dead, to what’s happening? And your response to the refusal to give information about this by Israel?

HA: I don’t have information. We’re trying to get this information, but the very fact of their withholding this information from families, from people who care about each and every person that was on the Flotilla, is very cruel. They are denying access to lawyers and other people, denying access to the people that are in the hospitals so that we can get their condition and talk to their families and hopefully reassure their families.

I don’t see any reason at all from withholding this information. We need to be pressuring the consul representatives here to press Israel for this information because it really is cruel and unjustified to withhold this from the thousands of people around the world who are waiting to find out what has happened to the people they care about.

DB: Israeli officials are now admitting that the boats were too large to use peaceful means to stop them and turn them back and defend Israel, so I guess that’s an admission that they had planned to use violence. In one of the stories that I read three times by the Associated Press on Monday, was that they only had paint guns because they were unprepared and they thought the boats were full of pacifists, but then they found out they were against their wall with paint guns. Did you get shot by paint? Did anybody get killed by paint?

HA: No, at least not on our boats. I did see them carrying M16s. I’m not a stranger to these kinds of weapons, as I see them here in the West Bank all of the time, so it is not true when they say that they weren’t armed with these kinds of weapons, and I know we experienced their tazers, they definitely had them; they had batons with them, and they had M16s with them.

Now, they did not use live ammunition on our boat, but I don’t doubt that they used it on the other boats. To even think that the Israeli navy and soldiers would repel down into these large vessels without being armed with live ammunition or something more than paint guns is a little bit hard to believe.

DB: And finally, while this was all happening, a young student from Cooper Union in New York named Emily who was twenty-one, was shot in the face at a protest against what happened on the boats. I understand she lost an eye and is in critical condition. Were you surprised that they would shoot someone in the face like this—a young twenty-one year old? And do we have any information on her?

HA: I wish I could say I’m surprised but I’m not. This kind of violence is perpetuated almost on a daily basis, and we’re seeing more and more international volunteers being directly picked by Israeli fire. They always say that they use only non-lethal forms of crowd dispersal such as tear gas canisters.

When they shoot their tear gas from a high velocity weapon and aim it at people’s faces, then things can be lethal, and Palestinians and foreigners have been critically injured and killed by these kinds of weapons that Israel uses against unarmed demonstrators. I hope to be able to see Emily within the next day or two. I hear that she is doing okay. She has lost an eye. Her spirits go up and down. She’s also a little bit tired, but… I don’t know what to say.

It’s really hard to know what to say when you see such beautiful people being brutally attacked, losing limbs, losing lives, all to defend a policy that is illegal, immoral and lethal; and people are taking to the streets because our governments for so long have been impotent, have failed to hold Israel accountable, have failed to apply the pressure that is needed to end their apartheid and racist policies.

I’m very glad and proud to be part of the people’s movement that is attempting to change it, but also ashamed of the silence that has gone on too long around the world, and especially what some governments and people who call themselves world leaders have done in the name of democracy and human rights.

DB: Do you feel in any way intimidated? I understand that in this context, one of the boats that’s getting ready to head for Gaza has been named after another victim of the Israelis, Rachel Corrie. Does this movement continue or do you think of other directions to go?

HA: We will definitely continue in our efforts to break this illegal blockade and to continue campaigning until the occupation as a whole has ended, and then there is a system here in the Middle East, in what’s known as Israel/Palestine that treats people equally and does not discriminate against people based on race, religion or ethnicity. That’s the kind of future that we’re campaigning and fighting for, and we won’t rest until we realize that.

In terms of breaking the blockade on Gaza specifically, yes, there is the vessel Rachel Corrie which has been on her way down from Ireland. She was held back a little bit because of mechanical difficulties, which we now know that Israel has done everything but admit that they were involved in trying to sabotage these vessels; but we have overcome a lot of hurdles. We definitely intend to send that vessel to Gaza, however the timing, we haven’t agreed upon yet.

It is in the Mediterranean and ready to go, however we are adjusting right now based on the violence that Israel used against the Flotilla itself—what kind of extra preparations and campaigning and political guarantees that we should try to get before sending the Rachel Corrie, but we are feeling a lot of support and we are encouraged by that, that now world leaders are speaking up and people are paying attention—the kind of attention that they should have been paying a long time ago, not necessarily to our boats and what we are doing, but to the unjustness of the blockade on Gaza.

There are more and more voices calling now for the lifting of the blockade on Gaza, and that’s what we need to see, actually more than just calling, but putting concrete pressure on Israel to end the illegal blockade.

Dennis Bernstein and Jesse Strauss produced this interview for Flashpoints on the Pacifica network, which was broadcast across the US on Wednesday, June 2 from the KPFA studio in Berkeley, California. You can access the audio archive of that entire show on their website, www.flashpoints.net. From the website you can also sign up to the Flashpoints mailing list.

>Pirates in the Mediterranean ^
Atlantic Free Press - By Neve Gordon, Ph.D - Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Complete here
Neve Gordon, born 15 June 1965, is a Senior Lecturer and head of the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, who writes on issues relating to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and human rights. A third-generation Israeli, Gordon did his military service in a IDF Paratrooper unit, and suffered severe injuries in action at Rosh Hanikra, as a result of which he has a 42 percent disability. During the first Intifada he served as director of Physicians for Human Rights, Israel. He is an active member in Ta'ayush, Arab-Jewish Partnership. He identifies himself as a member of the Israeli peace camp, has described Israel as an 'apartheid state' and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel movement.
Why didn’t they greet us with muffins and orange juice?” was my friend’s facetious question after listening all morning to the Israeli media’s coverage of the assault on the relief flotilla heading for Gaza, the navy assault that left nine citizens dead and many more wounded. Like a group of pirates in the Mediterranean, the Israeli navy attacked humanitarian aid ships in international waters, and yet Israeli officials and commentators were totally surprised when the passengers did not receive them with open arms. Going through the talkbacks on news sites, it seems that most Jews in Israel were also taken aback.

Later in the day, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman held a press conference, in which he made two revealing declarations. First, he asserted that no country would allow a foreign entity to threaten its sovereign borders. This claim, however, reveals the basic lie regarding Israel’s Gaza policy.

Israel has to decide once and for all whether or not it withdrew from Gaza in August 2005. If it did and Gaza is an autonomous entity as Israel claims, then the attempt on the part of these humanitarian ships to reach the Gaza sea port is not an infringement on Israeli sovereignty. If, on the other hand, Israel considers the flotilla’s entrance into Gaza’s territorial sea line as a violation of its own sovereign borders, then Israel needs to admit that it has never given up its sovereignty over Gaza. Lieberman’s statement discloses, in other words, that Israel has fashioned itself as a unique creature in the international arena: the non-sovereign sovereign. When it suits its interests, the government claims that it has relinquished sovereignty over Gaza, but when it does not, the government reasserts its sovereignty. Lieberman should keep in mind that with sovereignty comes responsibility. Thus, if Israel was indeed defending its borders yesterday morning then as sovereign, Israel is also responsible for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip--for their livelihood as well as their security.

Lieberman’s second declaration was that the Israeli military is the most moral in the world. No other soldiers, he said, would have dealt in such a forgiving way with the people on board the ships.

Lieberman conveniently ignored the fact that according to international law the Israeli soldiers were acting like pirates, since hijacking an unarmed humanitarian aid ship in international waters is by definition piracy.

Moreover, his second observation is informed by the lesser evil argument; namely, the Israeli military could have been more brutal and chose not to. As the great Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt pointed out, "Politically, the weakness of the argument [for lesser evils] has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget very quickly that they chose evil."

Israe;'s Dangerous Turn to Irrationality ^
Consortium News - By Robert Parry - June 2, 2010

After Israel’s lethal attack in international waters on a civilian flotilla carrying relief supplies to Gaza, a troubling question arises: Have Israeli authorities, who possess a major nuclear arsenal, become dangerously erratic?

UN Human Rights Rapporteur Blasts Israel ^
Consortium News - By Dennis Bernstein and Jesse Strauss - June 2. 2010

CN Editor’s Note: In an interview with Pacifica Radio's Flashpoints show on May 31, Professor Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, stated that the Israeli commando raid against a humanitarian fleet of unarmed ships was “as clear a violation of international humanitarian law, international law of the seas, and international criminal law, as we’re likely to see in the early part of the twenty-first century.”
What follows is the interview with Professor Richard Falk:

Ediitorial | Outlaws of the Mediterranean ^
Middle East Report Online - From the Editors - June 1, 2010

Much is unknown for certain about the commando operation, but it is nonetheless a moment of clarity in the ongoing drama surrounding Israel’s 43-year occupation of Palestinian lands and its ten-year siege of Gaza, which has been tightened to a stranglehold since the Islamist party Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections. Once again, Israel has made the asymmetry of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict crystal clear. With this raid upon a peaceful ship on the high seas, Israel has made clear its disdain for international law -- and its contempt for the notion that it will be held accountable for its violations. Israel will persist in this behavior until someone, and that someone is the United States, ends its impunity.

Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
A Primer ^
The Middle East Report - Current

Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis ^
Think Progress - By Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Zaid Jilani, and Alex Seitz-Wald - Thursday, June 3, 2010

This past Monday, the Israeli military intercepted a humanitarian aid convoy in international waters that was headed to the Gaza Strip with the intention of breaking the Israeli blockade to deliver much-needed supplies to the civilian population. After news broke that the interception turned violent and nine people died as protesters and Israeli troops clashed, gigantic protests erupted worldwide and the Israeli raid was met with international condemnation. While the incident of the Freedom Flotilla was tragic enough, it helps highlight an even greater tragedy: the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip resulting from the Israeli and Egyptian-imposed embargo. Despite the fact that the blockade of the Gaza Strip has been in place for nearly three years -- virtually devastating its civil society with "collective punishment" -- Israeli officials and leading American conservatives have repeatedly denied that a humanitarian crisis is taking place. But the truth is that the embargo is inflicting tremendous suffering on Gaza's civilian population while strengthening the hands of the extremists its meant to target.

A BRUTAL BLOCKADE: At the urging of the United States, Palestinians went to the polls in 2006 to vote for new leadership. Disaffected by the ruling Fatah party's corruption, many Palestinians saw Hamas and its extensive social support network as a viable alternative, and Hamas swept the elections. Following a civil war was that encouraged and supported by the Bush administration, Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Israel and Egypt reacted by imposing a "stifling" blockade of the territory. While Israel claims that its embargo is intended to keep weapons shipments out of the hands of Hamas, the flow of all sorts of basic goods, including food and medicine, have been severely restricted from the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in Gaza. Many goods now come through the tunnels at the Egyptian border. The Israeli government acknowledges that it keeps a list of items that are and aren't allowed into Gaza. For example, Israel prohibits the import of chocolate (deemed a "luxury good"), fabrics, notebooks, and some toys, but allows the importation of plastic buckets or combs. Perhaps even more disturbingly, the Israeli human rights group Gisha discovered that the government maintains a document that "apparently determines the minimum nutritional needs of Gaza's population, according to caloric intake and grams of food, parsed by age and gender," suggesting that the Israelis may be intentionally tightly controlling the Gazan population's diet. (In 2006, an adviser to then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the idea behind an embargo would be to "put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.") The effect of the embargo has been devastating on the civilian population, 44 percent of which is under the age of 15. A year into the embargo, a coalition of human rights organizations released a "scathing"report that found that, as a result of the blockade, "hospitals are suffering from power cuts of up to 12 hours a day, and sewage systems were closed to collapse, with 40-50 million liters of sewage pouring into the sea daily." The U.N. agency in charge of aiding Palestinians finds that the number of Gazans who are unable to "buy basic items such as soap, stationary, and safe drinking water has tripled since 2007." According to U.N. statistics, "about 70% of Gazans live on less than $1 a day, 75% rely on food aid, and 60% have no daily access to water." The humanitarian agency Oxfam found that most houses in Gaza were going "without power for 35-60 hours a week." The blockade has strengthened Hamas by bolstering the tunnel economy, through which various contraband items are smuggled into Gaza and decimating the legitimate business community. Speaking from Gaza in April, Bassam Nasser of Catholic Relief Services said "the blockade enabled Hamas to become in complete control of everything in Gaza," and that "closing Gaza and enabling goods or commodities to enter mostly only through the tunnels [has] enabled Hamas to have greater control."

DENYING THE CRISIS: Despite these facts, Israeli officials and various American public figures have either ignored, downplayed, or outright denied the existence of Gaza's humanitarian crisis. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said, "There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. ... The flotilla is an attempt at violent propaganda against Israel, and Israel will not allow the violation of its sovereignty at sea, in the air, or on land." Israel's ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren claimed that "there's no shortage of food. There's no shortage of medicine." Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich brazenly said, "There was no humanitarian crisis; this was a deliberate political effort on the part of people who want to try to undermine the survival of Israel." Syndicated columnist and Fox contributor Charles Krauthammer asked, "What exactly is the humanitarian crisis that the flotilla was actually addressing? There is none. No one is starving in Gaza." When asked by the Progress Report about the blockade, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) "refused to speak directly about whether Israel's blockade is causing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza" and downplayed the harm the embargo is causing. "I don't want to go into a discussion of the blockade on Gaza," she said, "I hope that we can end that by having a resolution in terms of Middle East peace."

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE: Though the Obama administration recognizes that Israel has genuine security concerns in regard to Hamas, it has encouraged Israel to ease some aspects of the blockade. In February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern "at obstacles Israel is placing to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip." Israeli officials have also allowed U.N. officials to begin bringing in construction goods. In the wake of Monday's crisis, many in the international community have called for lifting the blockade to relieve the territory's civilians. Yesterday, conservative UK Prime Minister David Cameron said, "Friends of Israel, and I count myself as a friend of Israel, should be saying to the Israelis that the blockade actually strengthens Hamas's grip on the economy and Gaza and it's in their own interests to lift it and to allow those vital supplies to go through." Both the European Union and Russia have called for the "immediate opening of crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and people to and from Gaza." Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Middle East Bulletin that Israel does have "legitimate" security concerns about "rockets attacking Israeli population centers," yet the "current policy approach to Gaza is counter-productive" because it harms the civilian population and hurts the chances of political settlement. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said, "Had Israelis heeded to my call and to the call of the international community by lifting the blockade of Gaza, this tragic incident would not have happened." Many Israelis, too, oppose their government's policy. In Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper, columnist Aluf Benn wrote, "The attempt to control Gaza from outside, via its residents' diet and shopping lists, casts a heavy moral stain on Israel and increases its international isolation." Benn noted "a list of goods prepared by the Defense Ministry allows cinnamon and plastic buckets into Gaza, but not houseplants and coriander. It's time to find more important things for our officers and bureaucrats to do than update lists." Meanwhile, international activists are already sending additional aid ships to Gaza, including the MV Rachel Corrie, named after an American activist killed protesting an Israeli home demolition. As Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Brian Katulis has argued, the U.S. should "work with Israeli officials to establish transparent criteria and rationale for allowing the import of food, medicines, and reconstruction material" to the needlessly suffering population of the Gaza Strip. There is some evidence that the Obama administration may be pressuring Israel -- which is the beneficiary of U.S. military aid and political cooperation -- to change course. One U.S. official told the New York Times that "there is no question that we need a new approach" in Gaza. Politico's Ben Smith writes that an anonymous American official told him, "The Gaza policy is bankrupt and needs to be changed."

Video | Both Sides of Flotilla Story ^

Turkey Flays Israel Over Killings ^
Al Jazeera - Friday, June 4, 2010

Turkish leaders have criticised Israel further over their deadly raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, in which nine Turkish activists were killed.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, said in a televised speech to members of his AK Party in the city of Konya on Friday that Israel had betrayed its religion, and stood up for Hamas, the de facto rulers of the Gaza Strip.

"You [Israel] killed 19-year-old Furkan Dogan brutally. Which faith, which holy book can be an excuse for killing him?" Erdogan asked, referring to one of the nine dead activists.

"I am speaking to them in their own language. The sixth commandment says "thou shalt not kill". Did you not understand? I'll say again. I say in English "you shall not kill". Did you still not understand? So I'll say to you in your own language. I say in Hebrew 'Lo Tirtzakh'."

Talking about Hamas, he said: "[They] are resistance fighters fighting for their land. They are Palestinians.

"They won an election and now they are in Israel's prisons. I told this to the Americans, that I do not accept Hamas as a terrorist group."

Cutting ties

Namik Tan, Turkey's ambassador to Washington, also warned on Friday that his country could break all relations with Israel unless it apologises for the raid against the Mavi Marmara ship, which carried a Turkish flag.

IN DEPTH

Tan also said that Turkey wanted a credible independent investigation into the events and for Israel to end its blockade of Gaza.

Asked about cutting diplomatic ties, Tan said: "We don't want this to go to that point ... [But] the government might be forced to take such an action."

Vdeo | Anger in Turkey over Israeli raid ^

Israel Signals New Flexibility on Gaza Shipments ^
The New York Times - By Isabel Kershner - Thursday, June 3, 2010

JERUSALEM — While still insisting that its blockade of Gaza is essential to its security, the Israeli government is now shifting its position, “exploring new ways” of allowing goods to reach the coastal enclave, an Israeli official said Thursday.

Is there a way to prevent attacks against Israel while providing humanitarian relief to the Palestinians?

Describing the latest thinking within the government on the condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly, the official said Israel was determined to have every ship heading to Gaza inspected to prevent the smuggling of rockets and other weapons. But at the same time, he said, the government wanted to facilitate the entry of civilian goods.

The government’s new flexibility follows a week of unrelenting international outrage over Israel’s commando raid on a flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists, which left nine dead, and reports that senior officials in the Obama administration were calling for a “new approach” in Gaza and had concluded that the blockade was untenable.

President Obama added to the pressure on Israel in an interview with Larry King that was broadcast Thursday night. While declining to condemn the raid, he said, “What’s important right now is that we break out of the current impasse, use this tragedy as an opportunity so that we figure out how we meet Israel’s security concerns, but at the same time start opening up opportunity for Palestinians.”

Israel’s Channel 2 television news reported on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had proposed to Tony Blair, the international envoy of the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers, that an international naval force inspect future aid ships bound for Gaza.

Mr. Netanyahu met with Mr. Blair on Thursday, but there was no immediate confirmation from Mr. Netanyahu’s office or from Mr. Blair’s that such a proposal had been discussed.

Then, On the Other Hand - The public relations is a marathon, not a sprint
Jerusalem Post - By Danny Ayalon - Friday, June 4, 2010

This has been a difficult week for Israel. Faced with an armada of hate and violence, our soldiers, whose sole task was to control the boats and bring them peacefully to Ashdod, were faced with machete-wielding jihadists.

French police urge Jews to go straight home after prayers ^
the Jerusalem Post - By JPost Staff - Friday, June 4, 2010

Complete here
French police on Friday asked local Jewish leaders to conclude Saturday morning prayers earlier than usual due to a mass protest against Israel scheduled to take place in Paris that same day. Protest marches will also be held throughout the French capital, even in the city's Jewish neighborhoods.

Fearing clashes between protesters and Jewish worshipers leaving the synagogue after the prayers, police asked the Jewish leaders to tell their congregants to return to their homes after praying and avoid the streets until the demonstrations end.

Public Diplomacy: At war without an army ^
The Jerusalem Post - By Haviv Rettig Gur - Friday, June 4, 2010

It may be too early to provide a real retrospective on Monday’s flotilla operation. The diplomatic aftershocks have not yet settled. The future of Turkish-Israeli relations is still a guessing game, with Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seemingly bent on an Iran-like push for regional influence at Israel’s expense. Israel’s own investigation of the strategic and tactical planning of the operation has yet to begin in earnest.

But one thing is already clear. The operation was a political disaster.

Reactions to Raid on Flotilla A Rorschach Test for Jews ^
Some Take Government’s Side, Others Question Blockade Itself
Forward - By Gal Beckerman - Wednesday, June 2, 2010

As the sun rose on the day following the so-called Freedom Flotilla’s attempt to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza, the American Jewish Committee had already sent out an e-mail blast touting its narrative of the bloody denouement that took place. An hour later came talking points from the Jewish Federations of North America.

A succinct storyline had been established even before all the details of the raid that left nine of the activists dead had become clear. The video of the vicious attacks on the Israeli soldiers rappelling down to the ship from helicopters — one that bolstered Israel’s version of events — had not been made available yet.

“When Israeli commandos boarded the ships, they were met with violence from a supposedly nonviolent group, including gunfire from automatic weapons and attacks with knives and axes,” the AJC statement read. “Several Israelis were wounded. As a result of the clash triggered by the pro-Hamas group, a number of them were killed or wounded in the confrontation.”

Here was one more Rorschach test for an American Jewry that has become increasingly factionalized when it comes to Israel, viewing every situation through its various preconceptions on the left and right. Either Israel was beyond reproach and acting in self-defense, or the incident highlighted a growing unease with the blockade itself, which one group of progressive rabbis called “the overall context of oppression.”

---

International News

- Real clear Politics Daily Rundown ^

An Israeli public lost in the woods ^

Israel rejects Middle East nuclear talks plan ^
BBC - June 4, 2010

Israel is already singled out ^
Atlantic Free Press - By Kourosh Ziabari in Iran - Thursday, June3, 2010

By criticizing the final resolution of the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the U.S. government once again demonstrated its indifference and unresponsiveness towards the international community and the bloc of 188 nations that demanded Israel to join the NPT and put its nuclear facilities under the comprehensive safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In a statement following the conclusion of the conference, the U.S. President Barack Obama expressed his concern over Israel's being singled out and reaffirmed his country's commitment to the Israel's "security", which is seemingly hinged on the possession of nuclear weapons.

Israel's self-inflicted wound ^
Los Angeles Times - Wednesday, June 2, 2010
There's still much to be learned about its raid on a Gaza flotilla. But it's clear that Israel has done damage to itself.

How Israel Out-Foxed US Presidents ^
Consortium News- By Morgan Strong - Monday, May 31, 2010

At the end of a news conference on April 13, President Barack Obama made the seemingly obvious point that the continuing Middle East conflict – pitting Israel against its Arab neighbors – will end up “costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure.”

Obama’s remark followed a similar comment by Gen. David Petraeus on March 16, linking the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the challenges that U.S. troops face in the region.

"The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel,” Petraeus said. “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the [region] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world.

Opinion | Treat Israel Like Iran ^

Israel’s deadly response to the Gaza-bound flotilla showed how differently the U.S. treats Israel and Iran. Stephen Kinzer argues it’s time to treat them in the same way.

Quick, name the rogue state in the Middle East. Hints: It has an active nuclear-weapons program but conducts it in secret; its security organs regularly kill perceived enemies of the state, both at home and abroad; its political process has been hijacked by religious fundamentalists who believe they are doing God's will; its violent recklessness destabilizes the world's most volatile region; and it seems as deaf to reason as it is impervious to pressure. Also: Its name begins with “I”.

Instead of treating Israel and Iran so differently, the West might try placing them in the same policy basket, and seeking equivalent concessions from both.

---

United States Government

Obama's Timidity and Deaths at Sea ^
Consortium News- By Ray McGovern - Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A chief lesson to learn from President Barack Obama’s recent unwillingness to stand up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Lobby is that such timidity can get people killed.

W.H. political team stumbles, bumbles ^
Politico - By Jonathan Allen and Carol E. Lee _ Thursday - June 3, 2010

They toppled Hillary Clinton, crushed John McCain and managed to get the first black man elected president of the United States. But now a series of recent missteps just keeps getting worse for Barack Obama’s political operation, already under fire from inside the party for losing its golden touch.

The second-guessing of the White House political shop — which is coming in part from top House Democrats — was sparked anew late Wednesday by news that the White House tried and failed to coax another Democratic Senate candidate out of making his race by dangling administration jobs in front of him.

Western Senators Propose Ban on Pacific Drilling ^
The New York Times - By John M. Broder - thursday, May 3, 2010

WASHINGTON — The political ripples from the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster spread in the capital on Thursday as six West Coast senators proposed a permanent ban on drilling in the Pacific and another group tried to raise oil company liability in a spill to $10 billion from the current $75 million.

Israeli Attack on US Ships - Navy Veterans Continue to Seek Justice ^

On June 8, 1967, while sailing in international waters, the US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty was attacked by air and naval forces of the state of Israel. Of the Liberty's crew of 294, more than half were killed or wounded. More than 40 years later, survivors are still seeking justice. The Israeli forces attacked with full knowledge that the Liberty was an American ship, yet survivors have been forbidden to tell their story under oath to the American public.

---

Activism at the Ground Level

"The strength of a democracy is, as in nature, in the roots, not in the flamboyant leaves and flowers that wither and die after a couple of terms in public office."
-- Editor, homosapiens.ki

---

Economy and Finance

- Bloomberg Economic News ^

Bloomberg Current Worldwide Financial News

---

Environment

America's Most Endangered Rivers

---

Media and Journalism

Has al-Jazeera changed its style? ^
A row over female presenters' clothing indicates that the channel may be getting mired in ideological conflict.

Al-Jazeera's Arabic channel takes pride of place among Middle East's satellite news outlets. It was the first of its kind, broadcasting – ostensibly with an unprecedented level of editorial independence – to a pan-Arab audience. It broke taboos and shocked audiences by hosting guests on debate shows who attacked the hitherto unassailable: the Saudi royal family, the Palestinian Authority and the Muslim clergy. In 2006, the channel even helped launch the infamous Wafa Sultan's career when she was a guest on The Opposite Direction.

The channel is no stranger to controversy. In the latest instalment, five of its most high-profile female presenters have resigned in an apparent dispute about the dress code. The five are reportedly among a group of eight women working for al-Jazeera who had filed a complaint about "repeated offensive public remarks" about "clothes and decency" from a senior al-Jazeera employee.

Al-Jazeera's female broadcasters always rated highly on the fashion stakes. Their style may not be to everybody's taste, and it's certainly not conservative, but the Levantine standard of beauty, coiffure and maquillage has become the norm. The women are mostly highly capable, chairing debates on difficult issues in classical Arabic, interviewing powerful men in politics and religion with gravity and aplomb, and generally providing a welcome change to the surfeit of hyper-sexualised images of women in mainstream Arabic m

---

Science and Technology

- Bloomberg Index of Current Science News ^

---

Archive of Miscellany

Dance Video | MICA | "Blame It On The Girls"
- LINK ^

Musical Group Video | Neville Brothers - Yellow Moon
- LINK ^

Out of the Hills | Jesus Is Coming Soon -The Oak Ridge Boys
- LINK ^

Musicians mix Coldplay and Taylor Swift together - Enjoy
- LINK ^

Music Video | "Democracy Is Coming to the USA" - Leonard Cohen
- LINK

Music Video | Leonard Cohen | "First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin"
- LINK ^

Music Video | Jordan Page - "Listen" | What If This Happened On Your Block?
- LINK ^

Music Video | Jordan Page - "Pendulum"
- LINK ^

Music video - Neville Brothers performing "Fearless" -
- LINK ^

Video - The Arts of Peace and Violence | video
- LINK ^

---

Sound off at Carrumpah-Lobo, the Homosapiens.ki Blog
- Check in

---

Language translations of this issue

Click on a language below to translate this page to your language of choice.
- Arabic - - Chinese - - Danish - - Dutch - - French - - German - - Hebrew - - Hindi - - Italian - - Japanese - - Korean - - Portuguese - - Romanian - - Russian - - Spanish - - Swedish - - Turkish

Note - Audio / video / slide show files do not translate.

---

About Homosapiens.ki

This website incorporates clips from mainstream and alternative media and, less frequently, blogs, and even obviously biased and counter-point-of-view sources. The clips are taken directly from the websites noted in each source link. Quotation marks are used where they appear in the cited source.

Homosapiens.ki has been developed on the XOOPS website production program.

Subscribe to a brief email notification as each edition of this site is posted. See top, left of any page io subscribe - no fee.

The editorial offices of Homosapiens.ki are located in New York City and Nelson BC Canada. Website hosting and technical services are provided from Sydney, Australia. The domain name registration ( .ki ) is a service of the Republic of Kiribati ( South Pacific ) domain registrar. Special thanks are due to all those who have assisted in bringing this site to life on the internet.

You may email the editor at

orchill@earthlink.net

In accordancee with TITLE 17 U.S.C. Sectopm 107, this material is distributed free to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes, Homosapiens.ki has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this content nor is Homosapiens.ki endorsed or sponsored by any originator.

Links are provided for access to source articles and for verification of authenticity. However, as originating Items are sometimes updated by their host sites, a version posted here may not match the version our readers view when clicking the source link on this site.

Privacy - we will not sell or otherwise or provide your name, address or any other personal information to any entity or person whatsoever at any point in time.

---