Halper's account of Israeli repression plus an equitable solution he proposes in Part II of this review.

By URI AVNERY - July 19/20, 2008

On Wednesday, [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah became the most important and powerful person in Lebanon. Three months after the crisis that almost caused a civil war, when [Lebanese] Prime Minister Fuad Siniora demanded that Hezbollah turn over its private communication network, Lebanon has become a unified country. Demands like the disarming of Hezbollah have become a pipe dream. Lebanon is also united in the demand for the liberation of the Shebaa farms [from Israel] and for the delivery by Israel of the maps of minefields and the deadly cluster bombs left by [Israel's] army after the second Lebanon war.

by Joseph Massad - 16 May 2008

One of the most difficult things to grasp in the modern history of Palestine and the Palestinians is the meaning of the Nakba (catastrophe). Is the Nakba to be seen as a discrete event that took place and ended in 1948, or is it something else?...What are the effects of making the Nakba a finite historical episode that one bemoans but must ultimately accept as a fact of history?...[T]he Nakba is none of these things, and the attempt to make this year the 60th anniversary of the Nakba's life and death is a grave error. The Nakba is...much older than 60 years and it is still with us, pulsating with life and coursing through history by piling up more calamities upon the Palestinian people.

By Amos Schocken - July, 16 2008

The claim that there are characteristics of an apartheid state in Israel is widely heard in the Western world. The word apartheid is catchy and understood in many parts of the world, which makes it useful to send a message that [Israeli's] resent and which we claim has no connection with reality in Israel. However, we do not need to replicate exactly the characteristics of South African apartheid within discriminatory practices in civil rights in Israel in order to call Israel an apartheid state. The amendment to the Citizenship Law is exactly such a practice, and it is best that we not try to evade the truth: Its existence in our law books turns Israel into an apartheid state.

Israeli lawlessness threatens a grave West Bank water shortage.

JERUSALEM - Shopping malls. Schools. Medical centres. Charities, orphanages. Soup kitchens. These are the latest targets in the campaign the Israeli military is waging against Hamas in the West Bank. Israeli military officials have identified Hamas’s civilian infrastructure in the West Bank as a major source of the Islamic group’s popularity, and have begun raiding and shutting down these institutions in cities like Hebron, Nablus and Qalqilyah.

By Gideon Levy - July, 15 2008

...[T]hey said there is no comparison: for them the Israeli occupation regime is worse than anything they knew under (South African) apartheid. This week, 21 human rights activists from South Africa visited Israel. Among them were members of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress; at least one of them took part in the armed struggle and at least two were jailed.

Veteran Israeli peace activist, journalist and author Uri Avnery weighs in on the debate over whether a U.S./Israel attack on Iran is imminent.

By Uri Avnery - June 23, 2008

AND SUDDENLY: quiet. No Qassams. No mortar shells. The tanks are not rolling. The aircraft are not bombing...And nobody says: Thank God, the killing has stopped!...WHY? WHAT causes this almost unanimous reaction of disappointment? Why is there a general feeling of humiliation, almost of defeat?...The aim of Olmert's war was to topple the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip and to destroy the organization itself. This has not been attained. On the contrary, according to all reports, Hamas is stronger than ever, and its hold on the Strip is solid. Even in Israel that is not questioned.

By Amos Harel - 08/07/2008

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have begun a military exercise with a warning that Israel and the U.S. naval force in the Persian Gulf would be prime targets if Iran is attacked...The report quotes guard official Ali Shirazi as saying Tel Aviv and American warships in the Gulf would be among the first targets if Iran comes under attack.

By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY - July 5/6, 2008

It was reported on 4 June, following a Bush meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Olmert, that the latter said “We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat. I left with a lot less question marks [than] I had entered with regarding the means, the timetable restrictions, and American resoluteness to deal with the problem. George Bush understands the severity of the Iranian threat and the need to vanquish it, and intends to act on that matter before the end of his term in the White House.” It could not be more clear that the Bush administration is determined to help Israel attack Iran, no matter what might otherwise be stated in public.

By URI AVNERY - June 9, 2008

"...[W]hat was the first thing [Barack Obama] did after his astounding victory? He ran to the conference of the Israel lobby, AIPAC, and made a speech that broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning...That is shocking enough. Even more shocking is the fact that nobody was shocked."

By John Pilger - July, 03 2008

Israel's treatment of an award-winning young Palestinian journalist is part of a terrible pattern.

"...[T]ry to spirit the penniless [Palestinian] population across the border by denying it any employment in our own country ... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."

--Theodor Herzl, Founder of Zionism, 1895

UN: Israel violated truce 7 times in one week
ROI MANDEL
Ynet, 27 June 2008