Continued from here.
All hail the peacemakers 20
20,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews protest Israeli draft law in Brooklyn
Shiri Eisner: USA vs. Israel on Queers
Shiri Eisner: On Israeli Homo-nationalism
Shiri Eisner: Israel justifying vehemently
Israeli sniper fatally shoots Palestinian protester who posed no danger, a-Nabi Saleh, May 2017
When I was a little girl, like many women of my generation who grew up watching American television shows (even if they were dubbed in Arabic), I used to twirl and twirl, trying to attain super powers like Wonder Woman. I would twitch my nose to magically transform my surroundings, like Samantha from Bewitched.
These female characters were exceptions among the docile housewives, the efficient secretaries, and damsels in distress that pervaded the popular media of my time. Wonder Woman and Samantha had the power to change their lives, even if that power had to remain hidden, forever a secret.
I am sure I knew that those characters weren't real, that their powers were mere fantasy for the sake of entertainment. But that did not stop me from believing that maybe, just maybe, I might also have power lurking somewhere in me. It didn't matter that twirling only made me dizzy and twitching my nose failed to magically complete my chores. I kept trying.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/06/imperial-feminism-woman...
WHEN I was young, there was a joke: "There is no one like you – and that's a good thing!"
The joke applies now to Donald Trump. He is unique. That's good, indeed.
But is he unique? As a world-wide phenomenon, or at least in the Western world, is he without parallel?
As a character, Trump is indeed unique. It is extremely difficult to imagine any other Western country electing somebody like that as its supreme leader. But beyond his particular personality, is Trump unique?
BEFORE THE US election, something happened in Britain. The Brexit vote.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1497645158/
Egypt sends fuel tankers to Gaza to ease power crisis
Israel backs GCC states in rift with Qatar
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1498224384/
When a Briton or American speaks about a "four-letter word", he means a vulgar sexual term, a word not to be mentioned in polite society.
In Israel we also have such a word, a word of four letters. A word not to mention.
This word is "Shalom", peace.
(In Hebrew, "sh" is one letter, and the "a" is not written.)
For years now this word has disappeared from intercourse (except as a greeting). Every politician knows that it is deadly. Every citizen knows that it is unmentionable.
There are many words to replace it. "Political agreement". "Separation". "We are here and they are there". “Regional arrangement". To name a few.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1498813058/
CONAN DOYLE, the creator of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, would have titled his story about this incident "The Bizarre Case of Bashar al-Assad".
And bizarre it is.
It concerns the evil deeds of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, who bombed his own people with Sarin, a nerve gas, causing gruesome deaths of the victims.
Like everybody else around the world, I heard about the foul deed a few hours after it happened. Like everybody else, I was shocked. And yet…
AND YET, I am a professional investigative journalist. For 40 years of my life I was the editor-in-chief of an investigative weekly magazine, which exposed nearly all of Israel's major scandals during those years. I have never lost a major libel suit, indeed I have rarely been sued at all. I am mentioning this not to boast, but to lend some authority to what I am going to say.
Anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and Israel's leaders - UpFront
What's driving India closer to Israel?
Ilan Pappé: Prospects for Peace: Facts and Fiction
I HAVE a unique confession to make: I like Gaza. Yes, I like this far-away corner of Palestine, the narrow strip on the way to Egypt, in which two million human beings are crowded, and which is closer to hell than to heaven. My heart goes out to them. I HAVE spent quite a lot of time in the Strip. Once or twice I stayed there with Rachel for a couple of days. I became friendly with some people whom I admired, people like Dr. Haidar Abd-al-Shafi, the leftist doctor who set up the Gazan health system, and Rashad al-Shawa, the former Mayor, an aristocrat from birth
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1499429308/
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1500047634/
THE WHOLE thing could have been a huge practical joke, if it had not been real.
All of Israel was taken in. Left, right and center. All the newspapers and TV networks, without exception.
There it was: UNESCO has declared that the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron is a Palestinian heritage site.
I ADMIT that I was taken in, too. The news was so clear and so simple, its acceptance so uniform, that I too accepted it unthinkingly. True, it was a bit strange, but stranger things happen.
Lecture by Miko Peled and Dr. Yousef Jabareen, part 1 of 3
Inside Story - What triggered the violence at al-Aqsa Mosque?
Israel confiscates solar panels supplying power to village not connected to grid for 50 years
Clashes erupt over Israel security measures in al-Aqsa
Israel's Great Divide - Al Jazeera World
Protest calls grow as Israel tightens grip on al-Aqsa
Inside Story - Is Israel changing the status quo around Al Aqsa?
GEORGE SOROS, the American multi-billionaire, is causing Binyamin Netanyahu a lot of trouble.
At this particular moment, Netanyahu does not need any more trouble. A huge corruption affair, concerning German-built submarines, is rolling slowly and inexorably towards him.
Soros is a Hungarian Jew, a Holocaust survivor. The Hungarian governing party plastered his face all over Budapest with a text that barely hid its anti-Semitic intent. Soros' sin is his support for human rights associations in his former homeland. He does the same in Israel, though on a much smaller scale. So Netanyahu does not like him either.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1500651750/
Abbas freezes contact with Israel over al-Aqsa tensions
Inside al-Aqsa: A 360° tour of Jerusalem's holiest mosque
Clashes over al-Aqsa Mosque compound persist amid diplomatic efforts
Israel removes metal detectors from al-Aqsa Mosque compound
Palestinian protesters 'victorious' after Israel lifts al-Aqsa security measures
Israelis fire tear gas at Palestinians in al-Aqsa
(the title is quite misleading...)
MY LATE friend, Nathan Yellin-Mor, the political leader of the LEHI underground, once told me that a certain politician is "not a great thinker and not a small fool."
I remember that sentence every time I think about Gilad Erdan, our Minister of Public Security. His part in the events of the last few weeks, in which the entire Middle East almost exploded, confirmed this judgment.
On the other hand, Binyamin Netanyahu reminds me of the saying: "A clever person is one who knows how to extricate himself from a trap which a wise person would not have gotten into in the first place."
About Netanyahu I would have said: "A very clever but not a very wise person."
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1501237269/
Old city, new reality: Palestinians sense status quo change in Jerusalem
Border Police violently arrest East Jerusalem man, breaking his arm, June 2017
Gaza: Surviving Shujayea - Al Jazeera World
Israeli PM Netanyahu under investigation for bribery
Israel criticised for crackdown on journalists covering al-Aqsa tensions
Israeli settlers seize Palestinian family homes in Hebron
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1501846624/
THE WHOLE world watched with bated breath while the days passed. Then the hours. Then the minutes.
The world watched while the condemned man, Muhammad Abu-Ali of Qalqiliya, waited for his execution.
Abu-Ali was a convicted terrorist. He had bought a knife and killed four members of a family in a nearby Jewish settlement. He had acted alone in a fit of anger, after his beloved cousin, Ahmed, was shot and killed by the Israeli border police during a demonstration.
This is an imaginary case. But it resembles very much what would happen if a real case that is now pending were to take this turn.
Israel moves to close Al Jazeera, ban its journalists
Why is Israel moving to ban Al Jazeera?
Jordan's King Abdullah heads to occupied West Bank amid tensions
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1502458442/
THE VULTURES are circling. They can see the wounded man on the ground, and are waiting for his end.
So are the human carnivores – the politicians.
They sing his praises, swear to defend him with all their heart – but in their heads they are already calculating who might be his successor. Each of them mutters to themself: Why not me?
Binyamin Netanyahu is facing the greatest crisis in his long career. The police are about to conclude their investigations. The Attorney General is under huge pressure to issue official indictments. The large demonstrations near the Attorney General's home are growing from week to week.
Jerusalem's Old City: Concern over Jewish expansion
I DON'T know when the wheel was invented, or who invented it.
However, I have no doubt that it was invented again and again, with many happy inventors sharing the glory.
The same is true for the Israeli-Palestinian Confederation. From time to time it appears in public as a brand-new idea, with another group of inventors proudly presenting it to the public.
This just shows that you cannot suppress a good idea. It appears again and again. During the last few weeks, it has appeared in several articles, presented by new inventors.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1503056327/
Israeli soldiers violently remove Palestinian teens from Hebron street to enable settler march
Demolition of tire repair shop, neighborhood of Jabal al Mukabber, East Jerusalem, 15 August 2017
Demolition of home, neighborhood of al ‘Esawiyah, East Jerusalem, 15 August 2017
oops.
Police seek critically injured Palestinian at al-Makassed hospital, try to seize his bed
Israel's Volunteer Soldiers - Al Jazeera World