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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...Israel. Always the victim?
A Palestinian medic carries the body of a girl killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza January 6, 2009. Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip killed more than 30 Palestinian civilians on Tuesday, medical officials said, and international efforts to secure a ceasefire focused on an Israeli demand to prevent Hamas from rearming....The Gaza ghetto uprising
A protester participates in a candlelit rally to denounce Israel's attacks on Gaza, in front of the Israel embassy in Seoul January 6, 2009. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won One is often baffled by the ironies of international relations and the alliances they foster. Take for example the Israeli colonial settlement that has declared war on the...Ontario Union: Bar Israeli teachers
University employees in the Ontario Branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are calling for a ban on Israeli teachers in Ontario universities in reaction to Israel's bombing of Gaza's Islamic University. Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario According to Sid Ryan, President of CUPE Ontario, "In response to an...1982 massacre rendered through dark, distorted lens
WASHINGTON (IPS) - Recently opened in wide release in the United States, Ari Folman's new animated documentary detailing Israeli involvement in the Sabra and Shatila massacre sheds new light on the Israeli side of that conflict, as well as the one unfolding today. "Waltz With Bashir", already an award-winning documentary and the...Hajj, Muslim history unfolds in IMAX film
DEARBORN — Of all the events in human history, it's hard to find many more suited for an IMAX documentary than the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Renowned traveler Ibn Battuta's journey from Tangier, Morocco to Mecca is faithfully reproduced in "Journey to Mecca." The IMAX screen's massive size and impeccable sound and visual...
News briefs
January 10th, 20098 Grant opportunity for Arab American organizations The Center for Arab-American Philanthropy (CAAP) is offering support and capacity-building grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 for Arab American organizations. Funds are available through individual donors and support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The deadline to apply for...
Community protests Gaza genocide
January 9th, 20090 The streets of downtown Detroit were painted red, green and black on Thursday, Jan. 8 as more than 1,000 protested Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip. Pro-Palestinian protesters lined Michigan Avenue by the McNamara Federal Building in downtown Detroit on Thursday as passing motorists honked in support of their cause....
Hundreds protest Gaza bombardment in second local demonstration
January 3rd, 20090 DEARBORN - About 500 people from varying ethnic and religious backgrounds showed up in front of the steps of City Hall on Friday to protest Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip over the past week, and to hold a candlelight vigil for victims of the conflict. Protestors brave the cold at the steps of Dearborn City Hall on Friday......
Thousands gather in Dearborn to protest Israeli airstrikes
December 31st, 20080 Second demonstration scheduled for Friday, 5 p.m. in front of Dearborn City Hall. DEARBORN – Several thousand demonstrators marched, chanted and waved flags, signs and banners along Warren Avenue in Dearborn on Tuesday, protesting Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that have killed more than 370 people since Saturday, including at...
Gaza war is a repeat of the 2006 and 1982 wars
December 31st, 20080 Israeli tanks move just outside the northern Gaza Strip December 29, 2008. Israeli aircraft attacked Hamas targets in Gaza on Monday, the third day of an offensive that has killed more than 300 Palestinians, many of them civilians. Hamas defied the strongest assault against Palestinian militants in decades by launching a rocket...
Arab Americans to protest Israeli assaults on Gaza
December 28th, 20080 DEARBORN - Arab American organizations called the community to action on Saturday in condemning and demanding and end to Israeli airsrikes on Gaza that began Saturday, killing more than 280 as of Sunday afternoon. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest near the Israeli Embassy in London December 28, 2008, against the Israeli...
Community leaders call for actions to stop the killings in Gaza
December 28th, 20080 Community leaders call for actions to stop the massacre against Palestinians in Gaza Bodies of Palestinian policemen lie on the ground of their destroyed police compound following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008. Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed at least 275 Palestinians, health......
Auto meltdown
December 26th, 20080 PHOTO: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook A 63-year-old Ford auto dealership has been bought out as pressures increase to thin the number of Detroit-area dealerships. A worker carries away a Ford logo sign from Al Long Ford auto dealership in Warren in the photo at left, taken Dec. 23. The image illustrates the intense uncertainty...Improving the United States’ image in the Middle East
Concern about the United States's image in the Middle East is not simply a frothy concern about being liked, because the United States's image is crucial to its soft power. When the United States is unpopular in the region, it is more difficult for governments there to cooperate with it and it becomes politically rewarding for leaders to......
Shoe hurtling political, not cultural
Analysts tying event to cultural phenomenon, obscure motive A protester holds up a placard, in support of the Iraqi TV journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, in front of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran December 24, 2008. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl The symbolism of last week's shoe throwing incident is explosive, but unfortunately the...Economy, ties with West are key to Iran polls
TEHRAN (IPS) - The main issue in Iran's June 2009 presidential election is certain to be the country's economic woes, but both candidates will be linking the economy to the issue of relations between Iran and the West, according to Iranian politicians and political analysts. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran,......
