tagged w/ mideast conflict
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Those who attacked Palestinians in central Jerusalem claimed they wanted to prevent them from speaking to Jewish girls. The fear of interracial relations once found only in the fringes of the right are now turning into a legitimate, mainstream political issue in national-religious circles.
Jerusalem Police are still carrying out arrests of suspects – mostly teenagers – in Friday’s shocking attack that took place in the city’s center. A few dozen Israeli Jews beat up three Palestinians, leaving one gravely injured and still hospitalized. According to several testimonies, the attackers also tried to interfere with medical treatment being provided to the wounded. At least one of the suspects was quoted in the Jewish media expressing regret that he and his friends weren’t able to kill their victim.
The event happened only several hours after a firebomb was thrown at a Palestinian taxi, leaving six people wounded. The events were unrelated, but they brought back fears of Jewish terrorism against Palestinians. As Roi Maor notes, unlike Palestinian attacks on Jews, attacks by Jews are under-reported, under-investigated, and under-prosecuted by the authorities.
The latest attack was rightly condemned by left-wing and (few) right-wing politicians. Less discussed was the motive given by some of the suspects for their attempted lynch. According to an eyewitness account published by Yedioth Ahronoth, the attackers claimed that the Palestinians tried to talk to a Jewish girl. Other reports claimed the attack had to do with the desire to prevent contact between Palestinian teenagers and Jewish girls.
Full Story: http://972mag.com/the-holy-war-against-arab-jewish-relations-and-the-jerusalem-lynch/54198/Those who attacked Palestinians in central Jerusalem claimed they wanted to prevent... more
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The final results in Egypt's first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections confirm an overwhelming victory for Islamist parties.
The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) won the largest number of seats under Egypt's complex electoral system.
The hardline Salafist Nour party came second.
The liberal New Wafd and the secular Egyptian Bloc coalition are some way behind them.
Egyptians voted in three phases over a six-week period to elect the 498 members of the People's Assembly. Ten further members are appointed by the ruling military.
Under the country's system, two-thirds of the seats are allocated to party list candidates, and the remaining third are voted for directly.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16665748The final results in Egypt's first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections confirm... more
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Yesterday, hundreds of residents of the Syrian town of Jeeza gathered to mourn the death of 15-year-old Thamer al-Sahri. Arrested after participating in an anti-government protest, al-Sahri had been missing for six weeks. On Tuesday, his mutilated body was released to his parents. Al Jazeera has received video footage that seems to confirm that al-Sahri was tortured:
The amateur video shows al-Sahri's body riddled with bullets, missing an eye, several teeth, and according to Al Jazeera's source, returned to his family with a broken neck and leg.
Al Jazeera is unable to independently verify the footage due to restrictions on journalists in the country.
Al-Sahri was arrested along with his friend, 13-year-old Hamza al-Khateeb. After video footage of al-Khateeb's brutalized body was released, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said his torture and death are a sign of how "deaf" the Syrian regime is to its own people. Australia's foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, has called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to face trial at the International Criminal Court over such "brutal" incidents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LESM7tIR-gsYesterday, hundreds of residents of the Syrian town of Jeeza gathered to mourn the... more
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Syrian blogger Amina Arraf, who blogs under the name Amina Abdullah and whose blog A Gay Girl in Damascus has readers all over the world, has been missing since Monday night. She and a friend were going to see a person involved with the Local Coordinating Committee when Amina was seized by three armed men. Her cousin, Raina O. Ismail, wrote the following on Amina's blog:
One of the men then put his hand over Amina's mouth and they hustled her into a red Dacia Logan with a window sticker of Basel Assad. The witness did not get the tag number. She promptly went and found Amina's father.
The men are assumed to be members of one of the security services or the Baath Party militia. Amina's present location is unknown and it is unclear if she is in a jail or being held elsewhere in Damascus.
http://damascusgaygirl.blogspot.com/2011/06/amina.htmlSyrian blogger Amina Arraf, who blogs under the name Amina Abdullah and whose blog A... more
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The violence on the Syrian-Israeli border on Sunday could signal a change in the Syrian government's strategy as popular protests continue among its citizens into a third month, says the New York Times. The Syrian-Israeli border had been relatively quiet for the past 37 years but Sunday's demonstrations in the Golan Heights -- which Israel seized in 1974 -- and elsewhere on Syria's borders, including that with Lebanon, "could augur a new phase of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and the web of international relations he is navigating."
The White House has accused Syria of provoking clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian demonstrators to divert attention from Syria's brutal crackdown of the uprising within its own borders. The Syrian government has so far blamed the protests that started in the southern city of Dara'a in March on foreigners and armed groups backed by Islamists.
Four people were killed by Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights on Sunday. But the very fact that the authoritarian Syrian government, which severely limits access to the area and to its borders, allowed protesters to venture there is notable. This was the first time in President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year-reign that he has "demonstrated to Israel, the region and world that in an uprising that has posed the greatest threat to his family’s four decades of rule, he could provoke war to stay in power." Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian dissident and visiting scholar at George Washington University, underscored this point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNxXJWZQ58w&feature=player_embedded
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/world/middleeast/16golan.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast&pagewanted=allThe violence on the Syrian-Israeli border on Sunday could signal a change in the... more
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At least 12 have reportedly died and dozens were injured today as Israeli troops fired on protesters marching from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the Left Bank to mark Nakba Day, the anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence in 1948. Nakba means "catastrophe"; for Palestinians, the day commemorates the 1948 War in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had to leave their homes and became refugees, says the BBC. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwn-FZ6v2Rk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13373006At least 12 have reportedly died and dozens were injured today as Israeli troops fired... more
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Lara Logan, CBS' chief foreign news correspondent, returned to work this month, just over two months after she was brutally assaulted in Tahrir Square in Cairo on February 11th, the night that Hosni Mubarak stepped down from power. She will be appearing on the CBS News program "60 Minutes" this Sunday night and speaking about the assault after which, according to the New York Times, "she does not intend to give other interviews on the subject." As Logan says: "I don't want this to define me."
Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/business/media/29logan.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=allLara Logan, CBS' chief foreign news correspondent, returned to work this month,... more
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At least one of the 1900 guests or so invited to the April 29th wedding of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton says he won't be coming: Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, has sent his regrets to Prince Charles due to the continuing unrest in the Gulf State kingdom, Al-Jazeera reports.
Full Story: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/2011424165555715419.htmlAt least one of the 1900 guests or so invited to the April 29th wedding of... more
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JERUSALEM — Israel’s blunt-talking foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, warned Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, on Thursday that the Assad family would lose power in any war with Israel, ratcheting up bellicose exchanges between the countries in recent days.
In a speech at Bar-Ilan University, near Tel Aviv, Mr. Lieberman said, “I think that our message must be clear to Assad. In the next war, not only will you lose, you and your family will lose the regime. Neither you will remain in power, nor the Assad family.”
Read more at link
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/world/middleeast/05mideast.html?ref=world
More of the same....bullies on the playground trying to one-up each other. And on it goes, over and over.JERUSALEM — Israel’s blunt-talking foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman,... more
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please send this to all your friends. the more people hear about the facts the better it is for israel.please send this to all your friends. the more people hear about the facts the better... more
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Officials say Hamas agreed on a ceasefire agreement that will start on Thursday. The agreement was achieved by Egypt's mediator Omar Suleiman.
The meaning of this ceasefire is that Hamas will stop mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli cities, while Israel will stop raiding on Hamas's military forces. The deal does not include anything about the abducted Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
Officials in Israel are worried that the ceasefire will be fragile and wont last long as Hamas intentions have not changed.Officials say Hamas agreed on a ceasefire agreement that will start on Thursday. The... more
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