TomClash
TomClash's JournalI know one thing about this election
They will try to take it by any means necessary. They will give no quarter and we shouldn't either.
Israeli settlers, Palestinians skirmish near Itamar
Israeli settlers, Palestinians skirmish near Itamar
By JPOST.COM STAFF04/12/2012 15:38
Matan Fogel, brother of murdered Udi Fogel of infamous Itamar killings, lightly injured in altercation.
The brother of Udi Fogel was one of two settlers lightly injured Thurdsay in an altercation with Palestinians on Hill 777, an outpost near Itamar in the West Bank. Mattan is the younger brother of Udi, who two adolescent Palestinians killed along with his wife and three of his children 13 months ago.
The settlers claim that Fogel and the second injured settler were herding sheep when a group of Palestinians began stoning them and beating them with clubs.
Following the incident, Matan and his companion were taken to the hospital by Magen David Adom paramedics on the scene.
In contrast, the Palestinians involved claim that the two settlers attacked them first while they were farming near Kfar Yanoun near Itamar.
According to the Palestinian account, three Palestinians were wounded in the fight and five were subsequently arrested by security forces.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=265848
This JP article - hardly a Pro-Palestinian publication - is far more objective than the propaganda posted previously from "israelnationalnews."
Zimmerman to be indicted
Source: MSNBC
Updated at 2:57 p.m. ET: The special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case will announce criminal charges against George Zimmerman on Wednesday, a law enforcement official told NBC News.
The nature of the charges wasn't immediately known, the official told NBC News Justice Department correspondent Pete Williams, speaking on condition of anonymity. But because Angela Corey — the special prosecutor appointed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to re-examine the case — previously announced that she wouldn't take the case to a grand jury, first-degree murder is not an option.
Corey's office confirmed that a news conference would be at 6 p.m. ET in Jacksonville, Fla.
Read more: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/11/11144255-nbc-george-zimmerman-to-be-charged-in-trayvon-martin-case?lite
America’s forgotten P.O.W.: Bowe Bergdahl
By Murtaza Hussain
The decision to send young men and women to kill and die in foreign lands is one which is often taken without much real thought for the welfare of these individuals, often barely past the age of adulthood, despite the massive amount of rhetoric and jingoism which surrounds their deployments. Soldiers are killed and maimed with depressing regularity, registering as a brief news story and then in most cases disappearing from the public consciousness forever. Perhaps even more painful psychologically is the plight of soldiers in conflict who disappear into the hands of those they have been sent to fight, continuing to exist in a state of living death, often mistreated and without means of contacting their loved ones or a clear prospect of when, or if, they may ever safely return home again. During the years of his detention in the Gaza Strip, captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit became a symbolic figure in his country whose name was known to every citizen. Through his suffering he became an iconic figure in Israel, where concern about his fate was almost universal and public pressure eventually forced the government to make his status a priority in its policy decisions. Similarly, most every Palestinian knows the plight of their own prisoners languishing behind enemy lines and popular opinion ensures that their fates are front and centre in every political negotiation carried out by their leaders.
Those in the United States who advocate war often cite the need to Support the Troops, ostensibly to show them legitimate support, but in practice usually as a means to stifle debate in order to further their own agendas. “Supporting the Troops” is an end-all response and bludgeon to any criticism of the massive, opaque wars being fought around the world; but how much does it really correspond to reality? What would be the reaction of Americans and American politicians, especially those continue to support military intervention, to their own captured soldier? Who is the American Gilad Schalit, the iconic figure of sacrifice whose fate is the concern of every one of his compatriots?
There is no figure who occupies such a place in the American imagination, but if there were to be one it would rightly be Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. For nearly three years Bergdahl, a 26-year old from Sun Valley, Idaho has been held captive by the Afghan Taliban. Captured in an attack on his unit in Paktia province in Eastern Afghanistan, the only glimpses his family and the outside world have seen of him over the past several years have come through intermittent video transmissions released by his captors to confirm his continued detention. In the first of these videos released in 2009, Bergdahl can be seen visibly choking back tears as he describes his life in detention, “Well, I’m scared,” he says. “It’s very unnerving to be a prisoner.” From what little intelligence that has come out about his life in captivity since, it is known that as recently as 2011 he made an escape attempt from his captors only to be recaptured and confined permanently in shackles to prevent any further attempts. The last video footage released of him, also in 2011, shows a young man who appears haggard and scared, a far cry from the smiling military photograph of him before his deployment to the Afghan battlefield.
Despite his nearly unfathomable suffering, Bergdahl is as out of sight and out of mind to the average American as the average Afghan, Iraqi, Somali, Pakistani and Yemeni victim of the past decade of war. One person who has not forgotten about him however is his father, who last year released a heart-wrenching video appeal for his release which should be mandatory viewing for all those who make a point of sloganeering about Supporting the Troops, or who advocate for them to continue to be sent on “interventions” into foreign lands without enunciating what clear, pressing national interest they will be serving. Bound by suffering with others who have had their lives torn apart by these wars, Bergdahl and his family are as much the victims of the cynical maneuvering of politicians and the lobbying of special interest groups as are the Afghans being killed and imprisoned over this war today. In his video Bergdahl’s father appeals to the Taliban to sympathize with his son’s plight by citing his empathy with Afghans presently being detained by NATO forces, “No family in the United States understands the detainee issue like ours. Our son’s safe return will only heighten public awareness of this.”
Perhaps that may be true, but where is the public awareness in the U.S. over the plight of its own captured soldier? Among those who advocated sending young people such as Bergdahl to kill, die, and be captured on an Afghan battlefield, who is advocating on his behalf and campaigning to make his safe passage home a priority? Sgt. Bergdahl has been detained for nearly three years, yet his image is unknown to the average American, his name is obscure, and his fate is seldom brought up in public discussions of the conflict. Unlike Gilad Schalit, he has not become a cause celebre in his society, despite widespread insistence that military service-members are sincerely revered and supported. Like an untold number of nameless Afghans and Iraqis who have been detained, tortured and killed, he remains an expendable pawn to those whose interests have been served by these conflicts and who continue to campaign for their expansion to new fronts.
http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/
Israel sidesteps nuclear-free Mideast in secret talks with NPT official
Israel sidesteps nuclear-free Mideast in secret talks with NPT official
The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty conference is scheduled to be held in Helsinki in December but could be deferred until 2013.
By Amir Oren
Finland's Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs visited Jerusalem secretly last week for talks with Israeli counterparts about Israel's involvement in a conference to ban nuclear arms from the Middle East. Two years ago Israel voiced opposition to such a conference.
The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty conference is scheduled to be held in Helsinki in December but could be deferred until 2013. The main item on the agenda is likely to be attempts made by Arab states and Iran to curb Israel's nuclear capability.
Israel wants to coordinate its positions with the United States. The Americans support the staging of such a conference. They are worried that its cancelation could serve as a pretext to undermine their efforts to promote the NPT, and could erode U.S. President Barack Obama's vision of a nuclear-weapon-free world.
However, during last week's meetings with Finland's Jaakko Laajava - the NPT conference coordinator - Israeli representatives did not agree to Israel's involvement in the disarmament talks in Finland.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-sidesteps-nuclear-free-mideast-in-secret-talks-with-npt-official-1.423642
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