The Arab American News
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Michigan congressional delegation supports Israel resolution
January 17th, 20090 U.S. Reps. Dingell and Kilpatrick vote 'present' The U.S. House and Senate backed Israel's ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip in two strongly-worded, non-binding resolutions last week, despite hundreds of letters that activists said were sent to representatives begging for action toward an immediate ceasefire. The Senate...How Israel’s propaganda machine works
As in past Mideast conflicts, both the media story line and political commentary here in the U.S. has closely followed Israel's talking points on the war. This has been an essential component in Israel's early success and in its ability to prolong fighting without U.S. pushback. Because it recognizes the importance of the propaganda war,...Guantanamo detainees’ poems come to life on stage
When inmates of the infamous Guantanamo Bay U.S. detention center in Cuba wrote poetry behind bars, they did so with little expectation of it ever reaching a wide audience. But thanks to the non-profit Actors and Poets Group of New York, the personal thoughts expressed in prisoners' poems will be made public in a brand-new...Olmert’s claims revive specter of “Israel Lobby”
WASHINGTON (IPS) — The U.S. State Department fiercely denied claims made by Ehud Olmert about his influence over President George W. Bush, in an incident that has stirred up old debates about the role of the Israeli government and the so-called "Israel lobby" in formulating Middle East policy in Washington. Israel's Prime...
News briefs: MLK event for Gaza will focus on children
January 17th, 20090 Local groups are organizing a Martin Luther King Day event focusing on children and the war in Gaza. ADC Kids Club is to present Children for Peace in Gaza (CPG) on Monday, Jan. 19, 5:30 p.m. at the Greenfield Manor, 4770 Greenfield Road in Dearborn. "CPG is an ADC Kids Club initiative to engage the children in the U.S. to assist...
Groups continue protests against war
January 17th, 20090 Michigan peace and human rights activists have continued demonstrations and awareness campaigns on the war in Gaza, which, as of Thursday, had killed over 1,100 Palestinians and 13 Israelis in 20 days. Protesters carry a giant Palestinian flag during a Wednesday demonstration in front of the Michigan Union in Ann Arbor against...Gaza: A new Middle East indeed
As Israel unleashed its military fury against Lebanon for several weeks in July-August 2006, it had one major objective: to permanently "extract" Hizbullah from the south as a fighting force, and to undermine it as a rising political movement, capable of disrupting, if not overshadowing the "friendly" and "moderate" political regime in...Israel losing the war in Gaza?
NEARLY SEVENTY YEARS ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called "the Red Army" held the millions of the town's inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans...E.U. considers ties with Israel
BRUSSELS (IPS) — Senior European Union figures have signalled that they could push ahead with plans to strengthen formal ties with Israel, even though more than 1,000 have now been killed by the bombardment of Gaza. Two conflicting statements about E.U.-Israeli relations were delivered Jan. 14, as the number of Palestinians, about...
Killing of insurgent described
January 17th, 20090 A court martial in Canada heard on January 6 the basics of the government's case against Captain Robert Semrau. He is charged with killing a wounded Taliban in Helmand Province on October 19. According to the prosecution, following a battle which began with an ambush by Taliban fighters, the Taliban were beaten. Returning to the...Children of Gaza, run to the angels
Loay Soboh, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy, waves at Shifa hospital in Gaza before his transfer to Saudi Arabia for treatment January 12, 2009. According to doctors, Soboh lost his eyes in an Israeli air strike. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah Ironically, it was in Palestine, 20 years ago, that I concluded that there is no God. For how...
Pro-Israel pardons and leniency too costly to continue
January 17th, 20090 Palestinians mourn in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, after their relative was killed during Israel's offensive January 14, 2009. International efforts to stop the Gaza war intensified on Wednesday and Israel pressed its demand that Hamas not be allowed to rearm under a ceasefire, sending warplanes to drop bunker-busting...Producer hopes film will educate
After its world premiere at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi on January 7, the ground-breaking IMAX film "Journey to Mecca" made its North American debut at the Henry Ford IMAX in Dearborn this past Wednesday, and creator/producer Taran Davies was in town to promote it. Moroccan ambassador to the U.S., Aziz Mekouar, was in town as...
Israel shells U.N. headquarters in Gaza
January 17th, 20090 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel shelled the United Nations headquarters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009, engulfing the compound and a warehouse in fire and destroying thousands of pounds of food and humanitarian supplies intended for Palestinian refugees. John Ging, head of United Nations Relief and Works Agency...GCC in security-sympathy fix over Gaza
DUBAI (IPS) - As Israel's assault on Gaza continues into a third week, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries remain distressed on two fronts — mounting Arab anger over Palestinian causalities and concern over Tehran and Tel Aviv using Hamas to settle their differences. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah (R) welcomes Emir of......
Jewish group selling olive oil to benefit Palestinian farmers
January 16th, 20090 As one of the top local advocates for peace and a ceasefire in the Middle East, the Jewish Voice for Peace's Detroit chapter works constantly to find ways to help the battered Palestinian population. A sample label from bottles of Palestinian olive oil being sold locally by the goup Jewish Voice for Peace. One creative way to...
Video: The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart on Gaza
January 13th, 20090 The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c Strip Maul Barack Obama InterviewJohn McCain Interview Sarah Palin VideoFunny Election Video Members of the group Jewish Voice for Peace have been circulating an email urging people to send messages of thanks to the host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon...
تظاهرات حاشدة فـي منطقة ديترويت تندد بالحرب على غزة والمذابح الإسرائيلية
January 11th, 20090 ديربرون، خاص لـ «صدى الوطن» اندفع عدة آلاف من العرب والمسلمين الأميركيين، يشاركهم بعض النشطاء الأميركيين من دعاة السلام في تظاهرة غاضبة عصر يوم الثلاثاء الماضي، على شارع وورن في...U.S. abstains as Security Council passes ceasefire resolution
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Thursday night calling for an immediate and durable cease-fire between Hamas and Israeli forces in Gaza. The U.S. abstained from the 14-0 vote. The United Nations Security Council meets to discuss the crisis in Gaza, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York......
Israel may face charges for war crimes
RAMALLAH (IPS) — Israel has committed war crimes and should be prosecuted in an international court, said Raji Sourani, head of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza. Palestinians mourn beside bodies of Palestinians killed at a U.N school, during their funeral in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip January 7,...
Over 800 killed in Gaza
January 10th, 20090 Palestinian father Magdi al-Samuli mourns over the bodies of his three children, killed by an Israeli tank shell early on January 5, 2009, upon their arrival at the morgue of Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital. A disproportionate number of fatalities among Palestinians in Gaza have been children and women. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem RAMALLAH......
Bush plan made assault on Gaza possible
January 10th, 20090 WASHINGTON (IPS) — Until mid-2007, there was a serious political obstacle to a massive conventional war by Israel against Hamas in Gaza: the fact that Hamas had won free and fair elections for the Palestinian parliament and was still the leading faction in a fully legitimate government. U.S. President George W. Bush looks down...Gaza’s off-shore gas reserves
The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves. This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline. British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens-based Consolidated......