War in Context

Pastor Jones’ Quran burning stunt

Paul Woodward — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 02:44:46 +0000

The Wall Street Journal reports: The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the planned burning of Qurans on Sept. 11 by a Florida church could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort. Gen. David Petraeus said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes, drumming up anger toward the U.S. [...]

Ground zero church launches with anti-Muslim, anti-Mormon sermon

News Source — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:47:50 +0000

Justin Elliot reports: To an audience of about 50 people — fully half of whom were members of the press — Pastor Bill Keller launched his 9-11 Christian Center at ground zero this morning with a fiery sermon targeting Muslims and Mormons as hell-bound followers of false faiths. Keller took aim in particular at Glenn Beck, [...]

Jewish supremacism among Israeli youth

Paul Woodward — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:13:17 +0000

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released numbers today which show that almost a third of the population is under 15 years old. What can we expect from the next generation? A new poll reveals how deeply entrenched bigotry is in Israel. A survey of Israeli teens revealed that most believe that Palestinian Israelis do not currently enjoy equal [...]

Anti-Israel economic boycotts are gaining speed

News Source — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:00:19 +0000

In Haaretz, Nehemia Shtrasler writes: The world is changing before our eyes. Five years ago the anti-Israel movement may have been marginal. Now it is growing into an economic problem. Until now boycott organizers had been on the far left. They have a new ally: Islamic organizations that have strengthened greatly throughout Europe in the past two [...]

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare

Paul Woodward — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:19:51 +0000

Those are the words of James Madison, cited by Fareed Zacharia as the anniversary of 9/11 approaches. Nine years after 9/11, can anyone doubt that Al Qaeda is simply not that deadly a threat? Since that gruesome day in 2001, once governments everywhere began serious countermeasures, Osama bin Laden’s terror network has been unable to launch [...]

Hamas official: Israeli settlers are a legitimate military target

News Source — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 21:00:56 +0000

Haaretz reports: Israeli settlers in the West Bank are legitimate targets since they are an army in every sense of the word, a senior Hamas official told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper on Saturday, adding that Palestinians were still committed to an armed struggle against Israel. The comment by Ezzat al-Rashk, a member of Hamas’s political office, came [...]

CIA views Israeli intelligence service as worst US ally

News Source — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:21:13 +0000

In the Washington Post, Jeff Stein reports: The CIA took an internal poll not long ago about friendly foreign intelligence agencies. The question, mostly directed to employees of the clandestine service branch, was: Which are the best allies among friendly spy services, in terms of liaison with the CIA, and which are the worst? In other words, [...]

The Listening Post – The media and the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ story

Paul Woodward — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:30:26 +0000

Israel and Palestine: A true one-state solution

Paul Woodward — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:15:34 +0000

Israel should adapt to the 21st century. Is that really a utopian idea? As Tony Judt succinctly distilled the issue a few years ago: “The very idea of a ‘Jewish state’ — a state in which Jews and the Jewish religion have exclusive privileges from which non-Jewish citizens are forever excluded — is rooted in another [...]

Poll reveals local support for Manhattan Islamic center

Paul Woodward — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:12:18 +0000

“New Yorkers Divided Over Islamic Center, Poll Finds,” says the New York Times in one of its headlines. Another says “New York Poll Finds Wariness About Muslim Center.” Neither headline suggests a careful reading of the poll results — a poll conducted by the New York Times itself. This is how the newspaper of record characterizes the [...]

Understanding the Taliban

News Source — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:00:09 +0000

Jonathan Steele notes that during almost a decade of war with the Taliban, none of their top leaders have been interviewed which leaves many important questions unanswered. Have the Taliban changed in the decade since they lost office? Is there a neo-Taliban, as some suggest? What of the younger generation of field commanders who lead today’s [...]

In asymmetric diplomacy the Palestinians are guaranteed to lose

News Source — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:39:09 +0000

Hussein Agha and Robert Malley write: The status quo, though sub-optimal, presents no imminent danger to Israel. What Israelis want from an agreement is something they have learned either to live without (Palestinian recognition) or to provide for themselves (security). The demographic threat many invoke as a reason to act — the possibility that Arabs soon [...]

Hamas says negotiations have already failed

Paul Woodward — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:52:30 +0000

If the political purpose behind this week’s attacks on Israeli settlers in the West Bank is still hard to decipher, it seems the message they sent out was directed more to Palestinians in the West Bank than to the parties currently gathered in Washington. Nicolas Pelham considers Hamas’ resilience as a political force and notes that [...]

The fountainhead of global strife

Paul Woodward — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:47:12 +0000

If the Obama administration had been as visionary as Obamamania promised it might be, Chas Freeman might not have merely been briefly offered the post of chair of the National Intelligence Council; he could have become a fine Secretary of State. Instead, the Israel lobby made sure he gained no position at all, but by [...]

Inside Story – Can peace be achieved?

News Source — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:21:59 +0000