Free Republic

Mideast Narratives Have Changed Over Time News Analysis By David Bedein & Shmuel Sokol, For The Bulletin Published: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 Jerusalem — During the course of the 20th century, and especially in the years since the 1967 Six Day War, there has been a dramatic change in the academic and popular historiography of the Middle East. The traditional narratives have been supplanted by new and fundamentally different and revisionist ways of looking at the region and its conflicts. A case in point: In 1977, PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein told the Dutch newspaper Trouw that “The Palestinian...

The latest chapter in the conflict between the governments of Israel and Palestine is generating loads of media ink – and huge, whopping lies. Here’s a roundup of the top myths related to this war: 1) Israel launched a preemptive war. Congressman and former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, suggested to Press TV – the official propaganda arm of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – that Israel’s actions were “preemptive”. His logic: Israel has nukes and Hamas doesn’t, so it’s unfair. Look, a war isn’t automatically “preemptive” just because one party was dumb enough to pick a fight it can’t win....

PARIS – Government officials and Jewish leaders are concerned the conflict in Gaza may spill over into violence in Europe, with attacks reported against Jews and synagogues in France, Sweden and Britain. Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, Monday night. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, was attacked Monday night by someone who "broke a window and threw in something that was burning," said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. And on Sunday slogans, including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire," were daubed on Israel's Embassy in Stockholm.

As the Israeli offensive against Hamas heats up, new fronts in the war are opening up. Tonight, reported attacks against pro-Israeli websites are being stepped up. A number of pro-Israeli websites have reported online attacks.

The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office and California attorney general are investigating whether members of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board broke conflict-of-interest laws in 2005 when they voted to offer their own chairwoman a job in San Diego. During a closed session on Halloween three years ago, the appeals board offered Cynthia K. Thornton a six-figure job as an unemployment insurance appeals administrative law judge, board minutes show. Three members of that board, including former Democratic Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin, voted to give Thornton the judgeship in San Diego, where she now earns $109,000 hearing claims from workers who say they...

The Gospel According to St. Levan by: Jesse Masai, October 09, 2008 A new gospel is in town. The gospel, according to Saint Levan Gachechiladze, is that Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili is responsible for the country’s recent woes. At an on-the-record meeting at the Hudson Institute on September 30, the opposition leader accused Saakashvili of provoking Russia into invading Georgia by using “undiplomatic rhetoric.” “Saakashvili is responsible for the war we have had with Russia. He miscalculated the situation, and then proceeded to manipulate the West,” he said, adding that an unstable Georgia could be vulnerable to Russian domination and...

Dear Fellow American: The mainstream (liberal) media’s smear campaign against Governor Sarah Palin has been one of the ugliest chapters in the history of modern witch hunts. Well, it has just become uglier—just when you probably thought that was impossible. It turns out that the “moderator” of the Thursday, October 2 vice presidential debate—PBS anchor Gwen Ifill—has a clear conflict of interest. Ms. Ifill is the author of a forthcoming book celebrating the politics and career of Senator Barack Obama. Her book is titled The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, and is scheduled to be published...

Two weeks ago, the nation’s most powerful regulators and bankers huddled in the Lower Manhattan fortress that is the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, desperately trying to stave off disaster. As the group, led by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., pondered the collapse of one of America’s oldest investment banks, Lehman Brothers, a more dangerous threat emerged: American International Group, the world’s largest insurer, was teetering. A.I.G. needed billions of dollars to right itself and had suddenly begged for help. The only Wall Street chief executive participating in the meeting was Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Mr....

So Far, It Just Isn't Looking Like Asia's Century By Joshua Kurlantzick Sunday, September 7, 2008; Page B03 So much for the Asian century. The Thais are bickering with themselves, and when they're done doing that, they'll bicker with the Cambodians -- again. China may be Japan's biggest trading partner, but they hate each other anyway. Malaysia and Indonesia? Two countries divided by the same language. I've spent a lot of time in Asia over the past decade, as an expat and a traveler. From where I stand, the place is a geopolitical mess. Hogtied by nationalism and narrow self-interest,...

· Solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, says mainstream public opinion, and the rest will follow. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only one of many afflicting the Middle East, and it is by no means the dominant one. · The Palestinian leadership continues to evade accountability. Today the watchword is "weakness." The image of political impotence has become a precious asset in the Palestinian strategy. The problem is not Abbas' actual capabilities. The problem is his unwillingness and lack of determination to create and govern a viable and accountable state. · Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others have called for...

Georgia crisis helps McCain for now Christian Science Monitor, MA Since last Friday, when Russia invaded its Caucasian neighbor, Senator McCain has spoken to his old friend "Misha" Saakashvili several times, ...

"It looks very strongly like the war is escalating both in the region of South Ossetia and now also in Abkhazia," Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, who chairs the group, told reporters in Helsinki on Saturday.

An armed conflict in the Arctic area is not far away unless USA leads the way toward a multilateral diplomatic solution. Washington has forfeited its ability to assert sovereignty in the Arctic by allowing its icebreaker fleet to atrophy, says former U. S. Coast Guard officer Thanks to global warming, the Arctic icecap is rapidly melting, opening up access to massive natural resources and creating shipping shortcuts that could save billions of dollars a year. But there are currently no clear rules governing this economically and strategically vital region. Unless Washington leads the way toward a multilateral diplomatic solution, the...

Thugs vs. Peacekeepers or Fighters vs. oppressors; Mob vs. Protectors or Martyrs vs. killers? Before I could judge, please allow me to present some recounts of the Tibet unrest from the commons there. (As most western media had sided with Tibetans, I basically pick quotes from common Hans for balance.) http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/03/21/china-commons-in-violence-and-conflict/

· Merrill says gap between rich and poor will worsen · Governments must curb rising prices, insists bank Riots, protests and political unrest could multiply in the developing world as soaring inflation widens the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots", an investment bank predicted yesterday. Economists at Merrill Lynch view inflation as an "accident waiting to happen". As prices for food and commodities surge, the bank expects global inflation to rise from 3.5% to 4.9% this year. In emerging markets, the average rate is to be 7.3%. The cost of food and fuel has already been cited as...

John McCain's campaign asked a prominent Republican consultant, Craig Shirley, to leave his official campaign role Thursday after a Politico inquiry about Shirley's dual role consulting for the campaign and for an independent "527" group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign also released a new conflict of interest policy barring such arrangements. Shirley, a conservative public relations veteran, doubled as a consultant to McCain and to the group Stop Her Now, a 527 group barred from coordinating its activities with presidential campaigns. He is not currently on the McCain campaign’s payroll, but would also step down from his role...

ISG moves from consensus to conflictBy DANIEL LIBIT 4/22/08 4:32 AM EST In December 2006, in an effort to build a national consensus on a “new way forward in Iraq,” the Iraq Study Group painted itself as a portrait of bipartisan chumminess, with all political hackery checked at the door. Sixteen months later, seven of the 10 ISG members are backing presidential candidates with radically different views about how to proceed in Iraq. Republicans James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and Ed Meese are supporting Sen. John McCain, who argues that the United States should be sending more troops to Iraq. Democrats...

ISLAMIC leaders from around the globe are at a two day summit in Dakar, struggling to counter wars in their midst and feeling unloved and unfairly treated by the West. US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, never ending conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and strife in Sudan's Darfur region weigh heavily on the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference as its leaders gather in the Senegalese capital. OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told foreign ministers at a pre-summit meeting that the leaders of the 1.3 billion Muslims must work on the "pressing issues confronting" them such as the death and...

Mother-daughter Conflict, Low Serotonin Level May Be Deadly Combination ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2008) — A combination of negative mother-daughter relationships and low blood levels of serotonin, an important brain chemical for mood stability, may be lethal for adolescent girls, leaving them vulnerable to engage in self-harming behaviors such as cutting themselves. New University of Washington research indicates that these two factors in combination account for 64 percent of the difference among adolescents, primarily girls, who engage in self-harming behaviors and those who do not. "Girls who engage in self harm are at high risk for attempting suicide, and some of...

Arab Racism and Middle East Politics Racism and Middle East Politics The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land. ... As the Imam said, 'Israel must be wiped off the map.' — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as quoted by Aljazeera Anger towards Israel by its Arab neighbors is out of proportion to Israel's sins. What we are witnessing in the Middle East is anti-Semitism, not politics. It is Jew-hatred, not a dispute over borders or rights or Palestinian statehood. This...