Middle East
News from the hotbed of religious stupidity
Hezbollah's actions ignite sectarian fuse in Lebanon
After almost a week of street battles, long-simmering Sunni-Shiite tensions have sharply worsened, in an ominous echo of the civil conflict in Iraq.
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Treaty for cluster bombs expected during upcoming conference
Support for a ban on cluster weapons has risen sharply since 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon, when, according to United Nations estimates, Israeli troops fired some four million Vietnam War-era submunitions, of which a quarter failed to explode.
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High-level Lebanese talks in Qatar (AP)
AP - Lebanon's ruling coalition demanded Saturday that talks to end the country's 18-month-old political crisis tackle the issue of Hezbollah's weapons, a demand the militant group rejected.
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Israeli, Egyptian leaders to seek Gaza cease-fire (AP)
AP - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday to discuss efforts to work out a cease-fire between the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip and Israel, officials said.
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Cards predicted walker's fate
The Israeli woman found dead in dense bush off the Routeburn Track was nervous heading into the trek after an ominous Tarot card reading.
Liat Okin, 35, was last seen alive leaving the Mackenzie Hut on the popular Fiordland track...
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Arab village's fence war wins some Israeli hearts (AP)
AP - Every Friday for more than three years, schoolteacher Abdullah Abu Rahma has grabbed a bullhorn and a Palestinian flag and marched a few hundred yards from his West Bank village to a 10-foot-tall mesh fence and an inevitable confrontation with the Israeli army.
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US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Iraq (AP)
AP - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a top Democratic critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, expressed confidence during a visit to Iraq on Saturday that expected provincial elections will promote national reconciliation.
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Bush pivots to Arab side of Mideast peace dispute (AP)
AP - President Bush pivoted to the Arab side of the Mideast peace dispute on Saturday, and got a far less glowing reception from his Egyptian host a key player in the long-running fight than he did in Israel earlier this week.
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Israeli army arrests 10 in Gaza raid
Israeli forces arrested 10 Palestinians during a raid carried out in southeast Gaza Stripafter midnight, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said on Saturday.
The witnesses said that at least seven tanks and four bulldozers ...
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Soldier Refuses Iraq Tour, Citing 'Stomach-Churning Horrors'
Excerpt: A US Army soldier who served as a military journalist in Afghanistan, Japan, Europe and the Philippines announced Thursday his intent to refuse orders to deploy to Iraq.
Read more [Anti War .com]
Iraq Veterans Describe Atrocities to Lawmakers
Excerpt: Antiwar veterans of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan took their case to Capitol Hill Thursday, baring their souls with stories of killings of innocent civilians, torture and wrongful detentions.
Read more [Anti War .com]
Gates's Hope to Reform the Pentagon Is Barking at the Moon
Excerpt: In a recent speech, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pleaded with the armed services to emphasize preparing for war against guerrillas instead of spending so much money and effort getting ready for conventional wars...
Read more [Anti War .com]
World's Deadliest Weapon
Excerpt:
On the 60th anniversary of the establishment, within the Mandate for Palestine, of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state, President Bush told Israel's legislature, that
"Permitting the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations."
Read more [Anti War .com]
On Independence Day, Israeli Arabs Reminded of Their Place
Excerpt: It has been a week of adulation from world leaders, ostentatious displays of military prowess, and street parties. Heads of state have rubbed shoulders with celebrities to pay homage to the Jewish state on its 60th birthday, while a million Israelis reportedly headed off to the country's forests to enjoy the national pastime: a barbecue....
Read more [Anti War .com]
Soldier Refuses Iraq Tour, Citing 'Stomach-Churning Horrors'
Excerpt: A US Army soldier who served as a military journalist in Afghanistan, Japan, Europe and the Philippines announced Thursday his intent to refuse orders to deploy to Iraq.
Read more [Middle East from UnFox News]
Saturday: 30 Iraqis Killed, 53 Wounded
Excerpt: Updated at 6:03 p.m. EDT, May 17, 1008
At least 30 Iraqis were killed and 53 more were wounded during light violence. A female suicide bomber attacked a Sunni checkpoint in Baquba, while eight bodies were unearthed near Basra. No Coalition deaths were reported.
Read more [Anti War .com]
World's Deadliest Weapon
Excerpt:
On the 60th anniversary of the establishment, within the Mandate for Palestine, of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state, President Bush told Israel's legislature, that
"Permitting the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations."
Read more [Middle East from UnFox News]
On Independence Day, Israeli Arabs Reminded of Their Place
Excerpt: It has been a week of adulation from world leaders, ostentatious displays of military prowess, and street parties. Heads of state have rubbed shoulders with celebrities to pay homage to the Jewish state on its 60th birthday, while a million Israelis reportedly headed off to the country's forests to enjoy the national pastime: a barbecue....
Read more [Middle East from UnFox News]
Saturday: 30 Iraqis Killed, 53 Wounded
Excerpt: Updated at 6:03 p.m. EDT, May 17, 1008
At least 30 Iraqis were killed and 53 more were wounded during light violence. A female suicide bomber attacked a Sunni checkpoint in Baquba, while eight bodies were unearthed near Basra. No Coalition deaths were reported.
Read more [Middle East from UnFox News]
Iraq Veterans Describe Atrocities to Lawmakers
Excerpt: Antiwar veterans of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan took their case to Capitol Hill Thursday, baring their souls with stories of killings of innocent civilians, torture and wrongful detentions.
Read more [Middle East from UnFox News]
Lebanese rival leaders open crisis talks in Qatar
Lebanon's rival leaders opened their Arab-brokered talks in Doha on Friday, seeking to end a long-running feud to avoid a new civil war, said reports reaching here from the Qatari capital.
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Th ...
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Iraq' PM offers amnesty for gunmen in Mosul
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki offered members of armed groups in Mosul an amnesty in exchange for weapons, his office said in a statement on Friday.
It said that the gunmen have only ten days to show up and hand over their hea ...
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U.S. supports Lebanon talks in Qatar
The United States said Friday it supports the Arab League-brokered talks in Qatar that is aimed at ending Lebanon's political crisis.
"We are pleased that there is now a process, that the fighting in the streets have stopped," said ...
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UK: Iraqi bombs not accident damaged plane in 2007 (AP)
AP - The British military acknowledged Friday that one of its planes carrying more than 60 people in Iraq was damaged by insurgent fire more than a year after it said there was no immediate indication of hostile action.
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Video: McCain’s hypocrisy about the Hamas
May 16: Washington editor of The Nation, Chris Hayes, talks about Sen. John McCain’s previous support of U.S. diplomacy with both Hamas and Syria. Is this another McCain flip-flop? (Countdown)
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US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,079 (AP)
AP - As of Friday, May 16, 2008, at least 4,079 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Read more [Middle East from UnFox News]
Saudis reject Bush oil price appeal
Bush's arrival in Israel coincides with release of message, purportedly from al-Qaida, condemning West's support of Israel
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Frustration for Bush as pledge to Saudis fails to win oil concession
Bush's arrival in Israel coincides with release of message, purportedly from al-Qaida, condemning West's support of Israel
Read more [Middle East from UnFox News]
Pelosi visits Israel for 60th anniversary events (AP)
AP - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel Friday to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding.
Read more [Middle East from UnFox News]
Bin Laden says Palestinian cause at heart of jihad (AP)
AP - Osama bin Laden vowed Friday to fight Israel for the liberation of the Palestinians, claiming their cause is at the heart of al-Qaida's holy war with the West.
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Lebanese government, opposition head for talks (AP)
AP - Leaders of Lebanon's U.S.-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition went to Qatar Friday for the highest-level talks since the country's political crisis began 18 months ago.
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Resisting the Nakba
One of the most difficult things to grasp in the modern history of Palestine and the Palestinians is the meaning of the Nakba. 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 political stakes in reifying the Nakba as a past event, in commemorating it annually, in bowing before its awesome symbolism? What are the effects of making the Nakba a finite historical episode that one bemoans but must ultimately accept as a fact of history? Joseph Massad comments.
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The Nakba march
Israel's Palestinian minority staged an alternative act of commemoration: a procession to one of more than 400 Palestinian villages erased by Israel in a monumental act of state vandalism after the fighting. In a sign of how far Israel still is from coming to terms with the circumstances of its birth, EI contributor Jonathan Cook reports that this year's march was forcibly broken up by the Israeli police who clubbed unarmed demonstrators with batons and fired tear gas and stun grenades into crowds of families that included young children.
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Film review: "Shadow of Absence"
"Born in Palestine. Died in Lebanon." "Born in Palestine. Died in Syria." "Born in Palestine. Died in Jordan." The camera pans across an endless row of white tombstones. Shadow of Absence takes death as its subject yet in doing so presents a powerful statement about Palestinian life. Isabelle Humphries reviews director Nasri Hajjaj's new documentary for EI.
Read more [Middle East from UnFox News]
Spokesman: Gunfire hits Iranian convoy in Baghdad (AP)
AP - An Iranian Embassy convoy came under fire in Baghdad, wounding two Iranian diplomats and two other staff, a spokesman said Friday. Tehran accused the United States of encouraging attacks against Iranian interests in Iraq.
Read more [Middle East from UnFox News]
