Daniel Ellsberg: We need Whistleblowers
January 25th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
The Palestine Papers on the Right of Return
January 25th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Writes Laila Al-Arian:
The Palestine Papers show that Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiators were prepared to make major concessions on the refugees’ right of return: on the numbers potentially allowed to return to their homes in what is now Israel; on whether refugees would be able to vote on any peace agreement; and on how many would be able to settle in a future Palestinian state…The papers also reveal that then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed that 1,000 Palestinian refugees be allowed to return annually to Israel over a period of five years -totalling just 5,000, a tiny fraction of those displaced after Israel’s creation.
Search the Palestine Papers on Al Jazeera.
Amy Goodman at Authors@Google
January 25th, 2011 § 1 Comment
An illuminating lecture on US news media, journalism and the US ‘s current wars by Amy Goodman during a lecture at Authors@Google from May 2010.
Amy Goodman:
We need a media in this country that builds bridges between communities rather than advocates the bombing of bridges. The media can be a great force for peace but that’s not how it’s used in this country.
I just came from Stanford speaking last night to a conference today on the future of journalism and for all of the new ways, interesting ways of distributing media and all the new possibilities and what with newspapers folding, what does it mean and where is journalism going, I think we still have to get back to the very important basics of journalism: holding those in power accountable.
Total Capitulation
January 25th, 2011 § 4 Comments
by Tariq Ali
The ‘Palestine Papers’ being published this week by al-Jazeera confirm in every detail what many Palestinians have suspected for a long time: their leaders have been collaborating in the most shameful fashion with Israel and the United States. Their grovelling is described in grim detail. The process, though few accepted it at the time, began with the much-trumpeted Oslo Accords, described by Edward Said in the LRB at the time as a ‘Palestinian Versailles’. Even he would have been taken aback by the sheer scale of what the PLO leadership agreed to surrender: virtually everything except their own salaries. Their weaknesses, inadequacies and cravenness are now in the public domain.
Now we know that the capitulation was total, but still the Israeli overlords of the PLO refused to sign a deal and their friends in the press blamed the Palestinians for being too difficult. They wanted Palestine to be crushed before they would agree to underwrite a few moth-eaten protectorates that they would supervise indefinitely. They wanted Hamas destroyed. The PLO agreed. The recent assault on Gaza was carried out with the approval of Abbas and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, not to mention Washington and its EU. The PLO sold out in a literal sense. They were bought with money and treated like servants. There is TV footage of Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton at Camp David playfully tugging at Arafat’s headgear to stop him leaving. All three are laughing. Many PLO supporters in Palestine must be weeping as they watch al-Jazeera and take in the scale of the betrayal and the utter cynicism of their leaders. Now we know why the Israel/US/EU nexus was so keen to disregard the outcome of the Palestinian elections and try to destroy Hamas militarily.
Rashid Khalidi on Palestine Papers & Turkel Commission
January 25th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Rashid Khalidi provides a summary analysis of the Palestine Papers on Monday’s Democracy Now! and discusses Israel’s recent investigation by a Netanyahu-appointed Israeli commission into Israel’s deadly raid on the Turkish Gaza aid Flotilla. The Turkel Commission concluded that Israel’s actions were legal under international law and referred to the murder of the 9 activists on board as ‘regrettable.’
States Khalidi:
I don’t see why anybody should be surprised. It essentially hewed to exactly the lines of the Israeli propaganda offensive that was launched the very day that this ship was attacked, which argued that the blockade of essential supplies from Gaza, which is a violation of international humanitarian law, is legal, that everything that the Israeli forces that attacked this ship did, including killing nine Turkish, including one Turkish American, citizens was legal. Essentially, this thing was written, or could have been written, insofar as what we’ve seen so far of it, by the same people who are in charge of Israeli spin management. It’s taken them a number of months to produce it, but the Israeli government spokesmen could easily have written this. Almost every key argument in this commission report was put forward by the Israeli government spokesmen at the outset of this affair.
Palestinian Authority Goons Attack Al Jazeera Offices in Ramallah
January 25th, 2011 § 4 Comments
Max Blumenthal asks: “How did the US and Israel-funded emergency PA government of Abbas/Abed Rabbo/Erekat respond to Al Jazeera’s release of the Palestine Papers? They released a goon squad to vandalize Al Jazeera’s Ramallah office and apparently to attack the person filming the video, too.”
Learning from Israel
January 24th, 2011 § 3 Comments
Israeli sunbathers felt so threatened by the impending arrival of aid to Gaza in May 2010 that they organized a 16-boat protest against the flotilla, complete with banner depicting the Turkish prime minister (Photo: Reuters)
With the release of the first part of the report from its investigation into the May 2010 attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla en route to Gaza—in which nine Turkish activists were murdered by IDF commandos—the Israeli Turkel Commission has underscored Israel’s capacity for democratic introspection.
The commission’s findings include that the commandos in question acted in self-defense and that the Israeli blockade of Gaza is not in contravention of international law. According to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the report proves that Israel is “a law-abiding country”.
I’ve made a short list of ideas for possible commissions in other countries interested in attaining a similar status:
1. The United States.
Commission to investigate inordinate number of civilian casualties of U.S. drone attacks on Pakistan.
Possible conclusion: Drones were acting in self-defense.
Ali Abunimah discusses the Palestine Papers
January 23rd, 2011 § 2 Comments
Al Jazeera English — Shlomo Ben Ami, former Israeli Forign Minister, Daud Abdullah, director of Middle east monitor UK and Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada make up the panel of analysts who discuss the Palestine Papers. Part 2 and 3 are below.
Seumas Milne and Ian Black discuss the Palestine Papers
January 23rd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Ian Black:
The single clearest and strongest message that comes out of these documents is the sense of imbalance if you like, between the negotiators on the Palestinian side and the Israeli side…You see the Americans more or less siding with the Israelis, increasing the sense that the Palestinians are under pressure.
Find the Palestine Papers which is currently a global trend on Twitter at Al Jazeera English and The Guardian.
Palestine Papers spell in ink the corruption of the PA
January 23rd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
For background, read Clayton Swisher’s report about how Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator of the Palestinian Authority, had suggested unprecedented compromises on the division of Jerusalem and its holy sites.
Find the Palestine Papers which is currently a global trend on Twitter at Al Jazeera English and The Guardian.
