At least 15 protesters were arrested yesterday as several hundred left-wing Israelis held their biggest demonstration yet against demolitions and evictions of east Jerusalem Palestinians designed to make way for Jewish settlers.

Exciting news! These are the sorts of stories that help to break down the notion that all Israelis are anti-Palestinian. Donald Macintyre again shows he's willing to report on stories from the ground and not just the press room.

I also encountered a vibrant youth culture that falls outside the good vs. evil, protester vs. hard-line cleric dichotomy that has been frequently bandied about this summer. Where, after all, do underground fashion designers, an English teacher who listens to hip-hop but doesn't believe in the Holocaust, freshly minted investment bankers, and skateboard punks fit into our view of Iran? Iran is not all mad mullahs in training, Molotov-throwing young protesters armed with a Facebook account, or brainwashed baton-wielding Basij militiamen, many still in their teens. They are, granted, a part of the fabric of this 2,500-year-old culture, but the Islamic Republic today is much more nuanced.

This excellent article by Jerry Guo shows how much more complicated the mythical "under 30" population of Iran is than is often presented by Western media. Not every young person is craving for the ending of Islamic rule. The more we look at the real diversity of views in Iran, the sooner we will be able to develop peaceful relations.

After 60 years of failed wars, and failed peace, it is time to put politics aside and to insist that the basic rights of the Palestinian refugees in Arab countries be respected – whether or not their children's children return to Haifa anytime soon. While Saudi Arabia may not wish to host Israeli tourists, it can easily afford to integrate the estimated 240,000 Palestinian refugees who already live in the kingdom – just as Egypt, which has received close to $60bn in US aid, and has a population of 81 million, can grant legal rights to an estimated 70,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants. One can only imagine the outrage that the world community would rightly visit upon Israel if Israeli Arabs were subject to the vile discriminatory laws applied to Palestinians living in Arab countries. Surely, Palestinian Arabs can keep their own national dream alive in the countries where they were born, while also enjoying the freedom to work, vote and own property?

A practical solution to the crisis of the Palestinian refugees in Arab countries will focus on Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, which together play host to approximately 3 million of the estimated 4.6 million Palestinian refugees living outside the West Bank and Gaza. While each of these countries has chosen different legal and political approaches to the 1948 refugees and their descendants, they share a political desire to sublimate the rights of Palestinian residents, treating them as unwanted guests or as tools to be used in pursuing wider political interests – but rarely as fully-fledged members of society. Lebanon, where Palestinians led by Yasser Arafat are widely blamed for having sparked the 1975 civil war, is the worst offender against international norms. Yet even in Jordan, which is in many ways a model for the humane treatment of a large refugee population, Palestinians today feel markedly less secure than they did two decades ago, or even five years ago.

Judith Miller and David Samuels have written an excellent article that gives an overview of the situation of Palestinian refugees over the last sixty, as well as providing short term solutions to help Palestinians until they have their own state.

Rather than giving African smallholders the tools they need for self-determination and sustainable agriculture-smallholder land rights; local control over grazing, water, seed varieties, livestock breeds and fisheries-and rather than regulate the global markets and giant grain monopolies that have destroyed African food production over the last three decades; the Green Revolution's view of progress is to enact market-based land reforms to promote the most efficient users (and evict the rest), and give farmers inputs and microcredit to turn them into agribusiness capitalists. By ignoring the true needs of smallholders and injecting agrochemicals, western ‘expertise,' and GMO seeds into African soils the Green Revolution will only serve to fill the coffers of biotechnology corporations and agro-input dealers while the rural poor remain food insecure and Africa's agriculture is taken out of the hands of African farmers.

Another good piece that shows how many "solutions" to dealing with hunger issues are actually forms of neocolonialism that make wealthy countries wealthy and keep poor countries poor and hungry.

Promoters created the idea of a “Ho Chi Minh Golf Trail,” a series of eight courses whose label is as good a sign as any of where Vietnam seems to be headed — its heroic wartime past redefined as a sales pitch.

Yet another reason why golf is one of the world's worst sports.

But slowly, I began to wake up from the dream. Two years later, our situation hasn't changed. For me, I will never return to armed resistance, now that I have a family to look after. But I see the entire village as my family, and I really want to see something good for them -- for the wall to be destroyed, and for the people of Bilin to return to our lands. I am still waiting for that moment.

Unfortunately, the tactics of Israel seem to promote armed resistance. They refuse to release just one of the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners currently rotting away in Israeli jails, but when an Israeli soldier is taken hostage, they are willing to negotiate. How can I convince the mothers of those martyred and those imprisoned that nonviolent resistance is the way forward?

But in my heart, I know that nonviolent resistance is the path to freedom for our nation. From my small village of Bilin, I hope our actions can set an example for others to follow.

Excellent piece on the Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement.

Just as one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, one man's ``climate change'' is another man's ``climate justice''. This fundamental difference in perspective goes to the heart of the environmental challenge as well as many other facets of the emerging world order.

To the developed world, climate change and global warming is largely a technical _ and universal _ problem. To the developing world, it requires much deeper reflection _ how did this problem arise? Who caused it? And who should pay to fix it?

Developing countries rightfully demand that developed countries that became rich by burning low-cost oil in abundance over the last four decades should both bear the brunt of cutting their greenhouse gas emissions and provide the money and technological support to help them switch over to a low-carbon economy.

Great editorial on the way that the developed countries want everything. We need more justice in this world!

Pampered by the state since 1967 to cement Israel’s hold on the West Bank, the settlers have an institutional clout that far surpasses their numerical strength. They are entrenched in government bureaucracy, the legal and educational systems, and, above all, the armed forces, a traditional path of upward mobility and the backbone of Israeli society.

Good discussion of the role of the religious right in Israeli politics and the challenges they present to peace.

While there is much on the surface that makes Tel Aviv enticing, this picture must be not be allowed to mask the dark underlying history of ethnic cleansing and land expropriation on which Tel Aviv was built, and that still continues today, even in Jaffa, while savouring the Israeli food and the Bauhaus architecture. In fact, the whole myth of Tel Aviv being built on empty sand dunes has been taken apart by various Israeli scholars, but none of this will feature in the promotional events.

Good piece on the reality of Tel Aviv as the city celebrates its centenary.

In choosing President Obama at this early stage of his Presidency the Nobel Committee recognized both the dire threat posed by the status quo and the unique opportunity offered by America's first African American--indeed, international--President.

It is up to Obama to use the Prize as an opening to pursue truly transformational policies on the world stage regardless of the potential political cost to him. It's up to the rest of us to put aside our narrow ethnic, national, religious or economic interests and help lead the way.

Good piece on the potential for Obama to use the Nobel Peace Prize as an opportunity to fundamentally alter how international relations function.

I can see the conservative argument that welfare undermines the work ethic and dampens moral fiber. Provide sufficient unemployment benefits and people will opt to chill rather than labor. But it’s preposterous to extend this argument to health care. Guaranteeing health coverage doesn’t incentivize anybody to get meningitis.

Another good column from Cohen. I love the way he conceives of universal health care as part of the social contract.

Still, this was a historic moment after 30 years of mutual recriminations and hyperbole. Under the circumstances, even simple civility was remarkable. Both sides behaved themselves almost as grownups, when it would have been easier to descend into a school yard rumpus.

Gary Sick always has excellent commentary on Iranian affairs. Let's hear it for diplomacy.

Barack Obama's handshake meeting with Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu is not getting nearly the credit it deserves. In fact, Obama's Mideast peace strategy is far more sophisticated than most observers realize.

Good stuff by Levy - far more thoughtful than most analysis.

Grotesque, unprecedented, bizarre, unbelievable. Sarah Palin was all of that in Hong Kong yesterday. And more. Dressed in a cutesy virgin-white blouse and black skirt with the infamous bee-hive hairdo, she was a blessing to every predicting spectator.

"There'll be one or two self-deprecating remarks, a reference to healthcare, taxation, out-of-control spending and a poorly told joke," my investor companion muttered when the lady walked on to the stage of the Hyatt conference room. All he forgot was the bit about Islamic terror. Alas, she did not fail us. "No recording, no photography, no video tapes, no mobile phones," they kept shouting over the public address system. And you could see why.

This column may be the most entertaining thing Robert Fisk has ever written!

Vahid Salemi / AP Photo Ignore the Iranian president’s vile rhetoric about the Holocaust. It’s his clever way of distracting us from what a lousy president he is.

Iran’s presumptive president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, heads to New York today to once again address the United Nations General Assembly. And once again, he has prefaced his address to the world body with yet another jibe at Holocaust history.

Last Friday, during Iran’s annual Jerusalem Day festivities—an occasion for Iranians to show solidarity with Palestinians—Ahmadinejad told an assembled crowd at the University of Tehran that “the pretext for establishing the Zionist regime is a lie ... a lie which relies on an unreliable claim.”

Whether or not Ahmadinejad actually believes what he says about the Holocaust is irrelevant. What matters is that the world must not be goaded into falling into the trap he is setting for us.

“The occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust,” Ahmadinejad continued. “The very existence of this regime is an insult to the dignity of the people, but it won't last long. The Israeli regime’s days are numbered and it is on its way to collapse. This regime is dying. Fighting it is a national and religious duty. The West has launched the myth of the Holocaust but it’s a lie.”

Right on cue, the U.S. media went into hysterics—“Ahmadinejad Denies Holocaust… Again!” was the headline at The Daily Beast—just as Ahmadinejad hoped they would.

Do not let the rumpled suit and unkempt beard fool you: This is a man who knows how to manipulate the media and has done so brilliantly time and again. It is no coincidence that prior to every single visit to the United States he has made some outlandish comment about the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad knows that once he arrives in the States, the press will ask him about nothing else except for his Holocaust statements. In fact, he banks on it. Better to have a 20-minute conversation about the vagaries of 20th-century history than about, say, Iran’s crumbling economy and his disastrous stewardship of it, or the continuing demonstrations of an emboldened protest movement, or the nearly wholesale rejection of his regime by the clerical class and the denunciation of almost all the grand ayatollahs in Iran, or the dissolution of his conservative coalition, which has fractured in the wake of widespread accusations about the rape and torture of political prisoners, etc.

No, let’s talk about the Holocaust instead.

The truth is that Ahmadinejad has never actually denied that the Holocaust took place. He is far too wily a politician for that. Instead he does something far more insidious and sinister. He challenges what he calls the “mythology” (and I use that term deliberately to mean “a set of stories, traditions, or beliefs associated with a particular event, arising either naturally or deliberately fostered”) that surrounds the very real, historical facts of the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad never comes right out and says the Holocaust didn’t happen. Instead he will say something to the effect of: “If the Holocaust happened, why must the Palestinians suffer the consequences of Europe’s crimes? Why not give half of Germany to the Jews.”

That is how he panders to the Arab street.

The best case scenario for today's meeting is that it puts to rest the morass of the last few months and sets a clear agenda for negotiations moving forward.  I hope that Obama is talking frankly with each leader about the importance he places on achieving peace in America's national security interest, his impatience with the public shenanigans, and the rapidly ticking clock.  Strained grins for the cameras aren't going to cut it.  

Good piece about what really will happen today and what needs to happen for peace to occur.

That is why I have long argued that the path of violent resistance leads to a dead end, while the path of non-violent resistance through direct action, institution building, and the development of popular political organisation provide promising alternatives. It is important to keep in mind these are tactics, and are not sufficient, in themselves, nor are they ends in themselves. To bear fruit, they must be strengthened and used in tandem as part of a broader strategy, whose end is to establish an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a just and comprehensive resolution of the issue of refugees.... Israel can rightly be condemned for its barbaric assaults and its inhumane blockade of Gaza (as well as its acquisitive, humiliating and deadly policies in the West Bank and Jerusalem). But Hamas refuses to recognise not only the futility, but outright stupidity and pathological destructiveness of its ways. To paraphrase my friend, the late Twefiq Zayyad: “You may claim the right to armed struggle, but when you consistently use it so badly, you forfeit that right.” Given recent, and not so recent, history, Mr Zayyad’s words ring true. The time has therefore come to recognise that a new path forward must be found. If it is not, then no matter what external players do or don’t do, the Palestinian reality will not appreciably change.

I'm not as convinced about the usefulness of the recent Fatah conference as Zogby, but I fully support his call for more nonviolent resistance, as well as the recent resistance at Bilin. The more nonviolently the Palestinians react, the easier it will be for the rest of the world to support them and see that Israel is the oppressor.

Ah, the happy world of Iraq, as seen through U.S. military press releases. Iraq could be exploding—in fact, parts of it still regularly are—but the press-release view would still be that of policemen graduating, officials cutting ribbons, and grateful citizens leading security forces and their U.S. advisers to weapons caches. The few press releases that do bear any relation to the reality we reporters see on the ground (“Iraqi Special Operations Forces Continue Operations Despite Budget Challenges”) are almost instantly recalled. The regular background briefings and press conferences that once helped put the ongoing violence into context are so last year. In a country with 130,000 U.S. troops fighting a war that still costs tens of billions of dollars a month, the military might as well be invisible. And for the most part, it seems to want it that way.

Excellent article about the intersection of changes in the global economy, the media, and the situation in Iraq.

Obama said in Cairo that a two-state solution is "in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest and the world's interest." He's right, but it's not the rest of the world that needs to get behind this vision. It is the Israelis who have to be convinced, and that will take sustained U.S. pressure. To succeed, Obama must use his bully pulpit to explain to the American people that the two-state solution is by far the best outcome for Israel and that time is running out. If he does not get that message across, he will become the latest in a long line of U.S. presidents who tried to end this conflict -- and failed.

Stephen Walt's analysis of the challenges for Obama in negotiating a deal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is excellent, but I disagree with his conclusion that a two-state solution is the best one. One-state solution is the most just way for all parties involved!