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Ramzy Baroud
"We are all Hamas," screamed a scrawny Mauritanian, repeatedly, as he determinedly drew his face closer to a TV camera. Behind him, thousands more tunefully chanted similar words, chants that were heard in different Arabic dialects, in fact in many different languages all across the globe.
Yet, Israel, somehow is claiming victory in the media war, which it calculatedly unleashed weeks before its most violent attack on Gaza yet. Thousands have been reportedly killed and wounded in the first two weeks, starting Dec. 27, in the tiny stretch of land (roughly 140 square miles), yet densely populated Gaza Strip of 1.5 million people.
Mary Shaw
A recent report by the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment found numerous flaws in that state's use of the death penalty.
Dan Rodricks of the Baltimore Sun summed it up thusly:
In its report, the commission concludes that, over the past 30 years, the death penalty in Maryland has been expensive and ineffective, riddled with error and tainted with racial and geographic disparities beyond reform. It should be abolished.
The commission arrived at that recommendation after careful review of research into the familiar points of debate - the alleged biases that make the administration of the death penalty unfair, the costs of death sentences over life without parole, the benefits of executions to the state.
Joel S. Hirschhorn
When I was young talk about millions of dollars impressed me. When I was older talk about billions of dollars dismayed me. Now, regular talk about trillions of dollars, especially government spending, nauseates me. People never seem to learn that they control the fate of the American economy.
It is far too easy to blame in bad times or thank in good times Wall Street, the government, or super-rich and powerful financial entities. In actual fact it is always the spending of money by the general population on consumer products and services, housing, cars, or investments that drives the economy. The core problem is that the public does not act in concert to serve its own interests but, instead, takes its cues from the external world and puts its trust in the wrong people and entities.
eileen fleming
I have only been as far as the Erez checkpoint, but I have four eyes in Gaza.
On December 9, 2008, I introduced Sam Habeeb, a twenty-something photo journalist and humanitarian worker in Gaza: www.wearewideawake.org
Yesterday, Sam received three death threats against him and his family because of his reports from Gaza: www.gazatoday.blogspot.com
I spoke with Sam today. His life is in danger from death threats and also the bombs that are very close to his home.
Franklin Lamb Beirut
"There is no structure of an occupation that endured for decades and involved this kind of oppressive circumstances. The magnitude, the deliberateness, the violations of international humanitarian law, the impact on the health, lives and survival and the overall conditions warrant the characterization of a crime against humanity. This occupation is the direct intention by the Israeli military and civilian authorities. They are responsible and should be held accountable." - Professor Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
Jalal Alavi
The 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution is nearing. The revolution of 1979 was not only an act against the US domination of Iranian politics, which began with the US-British coup of 1953 against the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh, but also an act that was supposed to place Iran amongst the countries that made the transition to electoral democracy [1] as part of what the late Samuel Huntington and others have called the “third wave” of democratization.
Thirty years later, it seems fair to say that neither of the above objectives has been achieved to the satisfaction of the majority population in Iran, of course, for a variety of reasons, the most important of which, as of the time of the revolution, may be said to be actor-based in nature: those who promised a more sovereign Iran and a more open society decided to establish a manifestly anti-Western theocracy instead, which eventually engendered not only a more interventionist Iran policy on the part of the United States and other Western powers, but also a clerical regime that turned out to be more reactionary than the secular autocracy it replaced.
Najwa Sheikh Ahmed, Nusierat Camp, Gaza Strip
The sky is still blue as I remember, I haven’t seen it since three days, I almost forgot how beautiful it looks in a sunny day in winter, I wish I cold walk on the beach and enjoy some peace.
I moved with my husband, my kids to his family house since three days, we left our beach apartment where the view is very nice to find a secure place, where the kids can not hear the loud sound of the explosions and wake up frightened and crying. I can not give them any assurances that tomorrow will be better for them, and that they will be save. They stopped asking us when this going to have an end, and when they can be back to their normal life as children.
Khalid Amayreh
“This is a translation of an Arabic interview with the author”
Question: Israel says it is only defending itself against recurrent attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian “terrorist” organizations?
Answer: All aggressors say they are only defending themselves. Nazi Germany said it was defending itself. Israel is the last country in the world that is fit to complain about terrorism. After all, Israel represents, encapsulates and embodies terror in its ugliest and most nefarious forms.
Sameh A. Habeeb
Breaking News: Five Palestinians killed in a bombing targeted Mus'ab Bin Umair mosque northern Gaza Strip.
Breaking News: Five Palestinians from one family "Bakr" killed west of Gaza City. The mother was killed along with her 4 children in F16 rocket.
Breaking News: Around 17 peoples killed in Al atatra family in Bait lahia town north of Gaza. Amongest them several children, two brothers, 20-year-old and many old men who were all killed by one rocket. Israeli tanks prevents ambulances from reaching wounded people in the same place. Among the recognized victims; Osama sliman, Mueen Abu aljdya, Ahmed Abu sltan, Hamaoda Abu sultan, Ali Al sous, Muhammad Al atar, Ahmed Tantish and one from Al shalfooh family.
Jeremy R. Hammond
Lie #1) Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.
The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.
Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime.
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