IDF, Army of Shame
Sami Jamil Jadallah, Palestine Think Tank
Before there was the Israel Defense Forces “IDF” there were the Jewish terrorist groups in Mandated Palestine. Before there was state terrorism committed by an army of the state, IDF, there was Jewish terrorism and terrorists committing crimes and murder against Arabs, British and even Jews. Before the State of Israel became an independent state, Jewish terrorist organizations carried out a number of operations not so much different from those committed by so called Palestinian “terrorists”. Moshe Sneh, the chief of Hagnah wrote a letter to Menachem Begin, head of the Irgun prompting him to carry out the bombing of the King David Hotel which took place on July 1946, killing 28 British, 41 Arabs, 17 Jews and 5 others. The terrorist walked in disguised as Arabs and unloaded 225 Kg of high explosive…

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The Most Important Question to Ask About Patrick Cockburn: Is he repeating US and Iraqi Government’s propaganda?
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat’s Dream
…Yesterday’s question was: Is Patrick Cockburn repeating US and Iraqi Government’s propaganda? Today’s question is: Is Patrick Cockburn repeating US and Iraqi Government’s propaganda? A few weeks ago, in an article titled “The Most Important Questions to Ask About the Trial of Tariq Aziz”, Patrick Cockburn, to describe the assassinated Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, used the following words: Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Stalin and monster, all at once. Even Bush has never dared much!…Some excerpts from Cockburn’s essay: “Many Iraqis say their lives were safer under Saddam but this does not mean they want him back. They know he ruined their country.” And now, you readers know as well. Let’s forget the First Gulf War, the Anglo-American imposed UN genocidal embargo and the 2003 supreme international crime, the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq – still going on…Like the Lernaean Hydra, propaganda has many heads. The problem is, the anti-war movement and the left are no Hercules…

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“Information Confirms Secret Iraqi-US Deals
Global Policy Forum
On May 19, the state-controlled Al-Watan daily carried the following exclusive report: “Journalistic sources in Baghdad revealed information regarding an agreement between the American and Iraqi governments over the implementation of several long-term strategic agreements before the end of the year without going through the legislative authorities. They pointed out that a number of these agreements were not disclosed before public opinion… “According to these sources, the Iraqi authorities were going to ratify four pacts with the American occupation far from the eyes of the media, in addition to a military agreement legitimizing the military occupation and another strategic, security and political one to ensure the continuation of the American protection of the Iraqi executive authority from domestic coup attempts. The information added that these four pacts were signed in 2005 and were presented to the Iraqi parliament at the end of 2007…

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U.S. to review how many juveniles it detained at Guantanamo Bay
Associated Press
U.S. officials said Thursday they will review if more juveniles were detained at Guantanamo Bay than the eight they recently informed the United Nations about. The United States told a UN committee on child rights last week that “no more than eight juveniles, their ages ranging from 13 to 17 at the time of their capture,” have been detained at Guantanamo. But according to a list obtained by The Associated Press two years ago under the Freedom of Information Act, several more persons may have been minors when they were first detained as part of the “war on terror.”…

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Protester shot dead at Gaza border
Aljazeera.net
One Palestinian has been killed and 17 more injured after Israeli troops fired on a demonstration at the Karni crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. An estimated 2,000 Palestinians were protesting on Thursday against the Israeli blockade of the territory. The shooting occurred within a few hours of a lorry-bomb attack near the Erez crossing, that left the assailant dead but caused no injuries, according to Israeli public radio…

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Qurei Urges Israel to Acknowledge Palestinian ‘Right of Return’
Nicola Nasser, thepeoplesvoice.org
Agreeing to the Israeli neo-historian Ilan Pappé’s interpretation of the term “Nakba,” Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmad Qurei said that peace and peace negotiations with Israel “could not hang on forever,” warned that “the horrible alternative option could not but be the total collapse of the dreams of coexistence and the resumption of the bloody struggle,” urged Israel to reach a solution for the Palestinian refugee problem “based on the principle of acknowledging the Right of Return, and compensation for the sufferings of the Palestinian people,” and to adopt a “culture of confession” and “apologize” for what happened, and “to uphold the responsibility for all that happened” in 1948 as “a necessary first step that would pave the way to achieve a just and lasting peace, which makes room for all on the land.”…

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US helicopter strike kills eight civilians in Iraq
Middle East Online
US helicopters attacked two cars near a town northwest of Baghdad and killed eight civilians, including two children, local police said on Thursday. The strafing by two US helicopters occurred near the town of Baiji on Wednesday evening, a police official said, adding that the bodies of six people were mutilated beyond recognition. “This was an incident last night involving coalition forces that resulted in civilian casualties,” the US military said in a statement. “The incident is under investigation.”…

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The True Dimensions of the Process (Lion’s Roar) in Mosul
Jassim al-Shammari , al Muslim, Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
Every day we hear of a new security plan and a military operation aimed to impose “law and order” in Iraq… Today under the pretext of pursuing al-Qaida fighters the government forces backed by American occupation forces, militias belonging to the parties participated in government and specifically Peshmarga Kurdish forces launched attacks and during this campaign arrested more than 600 people so far, including 120 officers from the former Iraqi army officers in addition to the officials from the various sectors in former regime. In this campaign also dozens of university professors and students were indiscriminate and barbarically arrested…We can identify a set of the true objectives of this campaign as following: 1. To eliminate the elements of national groups rejecting the foreign presence on Iraqi ground to make up a step leading ultimately to weaken the resistance in Mosul….

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Iraq: Alcohol banned in southern city of Basra
AKI
Alcohol has been banned in the southern Iraqi province of Basra.The provincial Basra Council has approved a new law enforcing the ban in the territory, the Voices of Iraq news agency cited Council president Nasif al-Ibadi as saying. The alcohol in the province was approved late on Wednesday, al-Ibadi said. “You will not be able to cross the borders between Iraq and other neighbouring countries carrying loads of alcohol to other parts of the country,” he stated. The local administration applied the change under Article 2 of the Iraqi constitution that includes the application of Sharia law….

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THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF GOD HIMSELF
Desertpeace
I knew it would happen eventually….but I’m not the type of person that says “I told you so”… especially not to myself… The doorbell just rang… it was a group of ‘concerned citizens’ from the community with a petition they wanted me to sign. They are bothered by the Muezzin’s call to prayer in the mosque down the hill from where I live. The strange thing was that all three of these ‘concerned citizens’ were supposedly observant Jews, one from the former Soviet Union, one from England and the third from Brooklyn…

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IOF troops destroy agriculture sector in Gaza; kill Palestinian farmers
Palestinian Information Center
The agriculture ministry in the PA legitimate government in Gaza Strip asserted on Wednesday that the IOF troops had bulldozed vast agricultural areas in the eastern sector of the Gaza Strip which is considered the food basket of the 1.5 million Palestinians living there. According to a report issued by the ministry and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC, the Israeli occupation army uprooted fruitful trees and destroyed greenhouses and artisan wells in Shokeh and Sofa villages, east of Khan Younis city over the past week in addition to ruining poultry farms estimated at 1.5 million dollars…

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Iraq’s disabled community: marginalization and isolation
Voices of Iraq
Abu Shahd, a wage earner from Baghdad’s al-Doura area who found himself partially paralyzed after a stray bullet struck him in the back and severed his spinal cord, is one of tens of thousands of disabled Iraqis who are the victims of consequent wars and 5 years of violence. Speaking to Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI), Umma Shahd, his wife, said, “He used to be quiet and he did love his job, but after the accident, he became high-strung and turned our life into a living hell. One of my sons left our home to stay with his uncle.”…According to a study conducted by the International Disabled Persons’ Organization (IDPO), in cooperation with the Iraqi ministries of labor and social affair, and health, there are over 1 million disabled persons, whose disability varies from mild to profound, in a country whose population is nearly 27 million….

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A true housing crisis
The scale of the Israeli government’s crimes in the West Bank is all too clear on a tour organised by a local NGO
Seth Freedman
My last article about the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) was a mea culpa, in which I spent the bulk of the piece atoning for my former condemnation of the group and their work. In so doing, I turned the focus onto myself and my own earlier misdeeds, rather than giving air to the far more serious crimes being carried out by the Israeli government all over the West Bank…

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IOA demolishes six Palestinian apartments in occupied Jerusalem
Palestinian Information Center
The Israeli occupation authority on Wednesday demolished six Palestinian apartments in occupied Jerusalem at the usual pretext of lack of permit, which is almost unobtainable. Large numbers of Israeli occupation police, border guards and special forces encircled the Tor suburb in eastern Jerusalem and blocked traffic in and out of it before bulldozers of the Jewish-controlled municipality of occupied Jerusalem tore down the apartments….

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POLITICS-US: As Bush Policy Crumbles, Allies Pick Up the Pieces
Khody Akhavi and Jim Lobe
…But evidence that Iran can be effectively isolated was belied not only by the clear gains made by Hezbollah at the Doha talks but also by events this week in Baghdad where the Iraqi army encountered no resistance in taking control of Sadr City. The peaceful entry of the Iraqi troops was reportedly made possible by a secret agreement between Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the man Washington blames for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, none other than Iran’s Quds Force commander, Brig. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The deal explicitly barred U.S. ground forces from entering the area, which has been the main stronghold of anti-occupation Shi’a leader Moqtada al-Sadr. After meeting with Soleimani, Talabani told the Christian Science Monitor that Iran’s Quds Force leader was willing to “send a small team” to “discuss any issue” with the U.S., an offer which appears to reflect Iran’s perception that it can now deal with the U.S. from a position of strength…

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Cheney says Iraq surge is a success
UPI
Vice President Dick Cheney told graduates of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy that the recent surge strategy in Iraq has “succeeded brilliantly.” Cheney was the speaker at the academy’s commencement ceremony for the second time in four years, The Hartford Courant reported Thursday. This year, 217 young men and women graduated from the academy in New London, Conn. The vice president told the graduates Wednesday they had the unusual experience of entering the academy during a war and graduating during the same war…

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AMSI: the Government has Nothing Different from the Occupation!
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
At the press statement the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) condemned the heinous attacks on the Ahmad Mukthar Mosque by the puppet Iraqi Government forces describing the government as having no difference with the occupation. This statement came after the attack of the occupation forces against Ahmad Mukhtar Mosque….

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Iraqi investment boom just around the corner ?
(Updated with the latest from Najaf)
badger, Arablinks
The GreenZone newspaper AlSabaah reports from Cairo, where an “investment conference” has been going on, that Iraq has signed contracts worth over $63 billion with a number of global investment corporations, for startup of a number big construction projects. “These include,” says the headline, “construction of the big port in Basra, the Baghdad International Airport, gigantic projects in Najaf, and the construction of what will be the largest residential city in the Middle East”…

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Syria-Israel talks ‘one year old’
Aljazeera.net
Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, has confirmed that Israel and Syria have maintained contact for a year, hours after it emerged that Turkey is mediating peace talks between the countries. A statement released by Olmert’s office on Wednesday said the sides “have declared their intent to conduct these talks in good faith and openly”. Olmert said later that the announcement “represents the end of a phase in a process of over a year, during which we were trying to set up a track which would allow the holding of peace talks with Syria.”..

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Israeli troops kidnap six youth, including a handicapped resident, in Hebron
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies
Palestinian sources in the southern West Bank city of Hebron reported on Wednesday evening that Israeli soldiers kidnapped five school students in Al Arroub Refugee Camp, north of Hebron, and also kidnapped a handicapped resident in Yatta town, south of the city. The Palestinian News Agency, WAFA, reported that soldiers kidnapped the five youth in front of Al Arroub Secondary School for Boys after claiming that they hurled stones at them…

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Pelosi denies Olmert proposed U.S. blockade of Iran
Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not propose a U.S. naval blockade of Iran during talks with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat’s office said on Thursday. Responding to a report this week in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said the lawmaker and the U.S. delegation she led met only once with Olmert during a May 16-20 visit to Israel and Iraq…

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d out a pistol and forced him to go with them. Other eight armed members of the same death squad unit in Palestinian civilian dress surrounded Arafat Nofal, pointing their guns at him. They drove Nofal to unknown place outside of Ramallah. The deplorable news of the kidnapping of Mr. Nofal by the Israeli death squad appeared nowhere in the Palestinian newspapers. The question is, why does the PA not expose this scandal, the kidnapping of a member of their own security….

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Audit: 98% Of Iraq Contractors Failed To Comply With Fraud Regulations
ANNE FLAHERTY
An internal audit of some $8 billion paid to U.S. and Iraqi contractors found that nearly every transaction failed to comply with federal laws or regulations aimed at preventing fraud, in some cases lacking even basic invoices explaining how the money was spent. Of the money paid during a five-year period _ from 2001 through 2006 _ $7.8 billion in payments skirted billing rules with some violations egregious enough to invite potential fraud, warned the Defense Department’s inspector general…

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FBI files indict Bush, Cheney and Co. as war criminals
Bill Van Auken, WSWS
The most stunning revelation in a 370-page Justice US Department Inspector General’s report released this week was that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had formally opened a “War Crimes” file, documenting torture they had witnessed at the Guantánamo Bay US prison camp, before being ordered by the administration to stop writing their reports…

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May 23, 2008: 2 US Soldiers, 19 Iraqis Killed; 11 Iraqis Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
At least 19 Iraqis were killed and 11 more were wounded on a quiet prayer day. Sadrist officials reported that Iraqi security forces stopped Friday prayer services in Baghdad and Basra. An American soldier was killed south of Baghdad in an IED attack yesterday. Also, another American soldier was killed while on leave in the United States. A roadside bomb in Fallujah wounded six Marines in the Bustan Albo district. Their Iraqi interpreter was killed in the incident, but these numbers may change as more information becomes available…

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Palestinian doctors: Israeli siege on Gaza causes more death among children
Palestinian Information Center
Palestinian doctors have warned on Thursday that the Israeli blockade on Gaza Strip was taking its heavy toll on Palestinian children as death rate among newly-born children sharply increased due to lack of medical equipments and electricity. They also underlined that the embargo wasn’t also affecting newly-born babies, but rather, they explained, it was inflicting “catastrophic” psychological and health problems among Gaza children in general…

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Anti-siege committee urges the world to save Gaza children
Palestinian Information Center
The Gaza-based anti-siege committee has urged on Thursday international and Arab concerned parties to immediately intervene to put an end to the Israeli siege against Gaza Strip, and to stop the accelerated deterioration in all aspects of life there. In press statements he issued in this regard, Rami Abdo, the spokesman of the committee, described the Israeli siege on Gaza strip as the “ugliest closure and suffocation system the modern history had ever known”, saying that most of the Strip’s inhabitants couldn’t find potable water to drink in addition to piles of garbage spread in the streets…

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Israel’s “Free Press”? Broken pencils, broken bones and broken lives of reporters
Iqbal Tamimi, Palestine Think Tank
The Jewish Chronicle published an article on the 16th of May entitled ‘Miliband tribute ahead of Israel trip’. The article says: Foreign secretary David Miliband delivered an unscripted tribute to Israel’s achievements and search for peace at the Israeli embassy’s Independence Day Party this week. Expressing his delight at participating in the celebration, held at a central London hotel with 2,000 invited guests, Mr Miliband praised Israel’s free press….. Israel’s free press?…

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Bush: Zionism’s bosom buddy
Khaled Amayreh
In his speech before the Israeli Knesset last week, President George W Bush proved once again that he is a Zionist par excellence. Indeed, the depth of his embrace of Zionism and the totality of his support for Israel surprised even his Israeli hosts. One Knesset member from a far right-wing party lamented that if only Israeli leaders showed similar commitment to Zionism, Israel would be in much better shape….

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NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH !! CENSORED !!
Merry, EUROPEAN TURKMEN FRIENDSHIPS
This is to report that my blog “EUROPEAN TURKMEN FRIENDSHIPS” has been locked by Blogger this morning, I can no longer add new posts and they threaten to delete my blog! Obviously, someone did not appreciate me posting articles exposing US-UK war crimes in Iraq , having added URUKNET, The Cat’s blog, France-Irak Actualité, BRussels Tribunal etc. to my favourite blogs and posting some of Layla Anwar’s writings… The last posts I added were: Depleted Uranium Shells used by US Military in Iraq, Petition for the Iraqi Prisoners detained in US detention centres in Iraq, Number of Iraqi Deaths due to US invasion…

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Maliki’s meeting that never occurred and the fake Fatwa
Roads to Iraq
…Both Maliki and the Sadrists are plying a religious game, the Sadrists with Al-Hae’ri statement are pressuring Sistani to reject the Iraqi – American agreement, and later leaked this false Fatwa to show Sistanis double standards, he supports military operations against the Sadrists while he rejects resistance operation against the occupation….

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Sistani does not issue fatwa allowing armed resistance against foreign troops in Iraq-source
Voices of Iraq
A close source to grand ayatollah Ali Sistani’s office on Friday denied news agencies’ reports the Shiite cleric issued a fatwa permiting taking up weapons to drive the foreign occupation forces out of Iraq. “The reports of issuing fatwa by the Shiite cleric Sistani permiting taking up arms to drive foreign troops out of Iraq were baseless”….

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US political author Norman Finkelstein denied entry to Israel
MOnsters & Critics
The US political author and critic of Israel Norman Finkelstein was denied entry to the Jewish state on Friday, his lawyer said. Finkelstein landed at Ben Gurion international airport near Tel Aviv in the early morning and was told by a representative of the ministry of interior that he would not be allowed into the country on ‘security’ grounds, attorney Michael Sfard told dpa. ‘This usually means a 10-year ban on entry,’ Sfard added….

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Iran, Syria to attend Iraq meeting in Sweden-UN
Reuters
Iran’s foreign minister and Syria’s ambassador to Sweden are among the officials expected to attend next week’s ministerial meeting of the Iraq Compact Annual Review, U.N. officials said on Friday. The talks in Stockholm will focus on assessing progress in implementing a peace and development plan to help rebuild the Iraq more than five years after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003…

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NORMAN FINKELSTEIN ARRESTED IN ISRAEL
Desertpeace
Yes, Norman Finkelstein is a guest of the State of Israel! IN PRISON! He was denied entry to the country this morning, whisked away to a prison and will be deported tomorrow. WAY TO GO ONLY DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST!…

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Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 21/2008 (15 – 21 May 2008)
PCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law continued in the OPT, especially in the Gaza Strip, during the reporting period (15 – 21 May 2008): Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed four Palestinians, including a child and a farmer, in the Gaza Strip; and two other Palestinians died from previous injuries sustained in the Gaza Strip.; A Palestinian boy was also shot dead by IOF troops at Huwara checkpoint near Nablus. In addition, IOF wounded 13 Palestinians, including 4 children and a farmer, in the Gaza Strip, and a Palestinian was injured by settler gunfire in the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, IOF used excessive force on 20 May, killing one child and injuring a second by artillery fire directed at an empty rocket launcher near Beit Lahia. On 15 May, a Palestinian died of wounds sustained 11 days earlier during an IOF incursion east of Khan Yunis….

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As Senate approves new war funding, US massacres Iraqi civilians
Joseph Kishore, WSWS
US helicopters massacred at least eight civilians, including several children, in an operation in northern Iraq on Wednesday. The civilians were killed when strafed or bombed by US helicopters, though there are conflicting accounts about the details of their deaths. The incident was near Baiji, located between Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul…

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Critically ill patients from Gaza appeal to Israeli court
IRIN News
Ahmed al-Baghdadi’s doctors said he must leave the Gaza Strip and travel to Israel to receive urgent life-saving medical care if he hopes to fight the tumours in his body. Rada al-Khadir, aged 22, needs to get treatment immediately, her Israeli doctor said, or her liver disease could prove fatal. Both patients have been denied permission to leave by the Israeli military. On 20 May – along with 11 other Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in need of immediate medical care in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan – they filed separate petitions to the Israeli High Court, asking that they be allowed to leave the enclave and go to the relevant hospitals…

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SEX BRINGING ISRAEL AND PALESTINE CLOSER TOGETHER
Desertpeace
Last week I reported that Cybersex was banned in Gaza (Hamas bans pornographic websites in Gaza Strip). Now Israel is banning sex altogether…. These bans might be the opening we have been waiting for…

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The Israeli army tanks leaves Gaza after killing five and kidnapping 25 others
Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC News
Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli army has killed on Friday five Palestinian fighters and kidnapped 25 other civilians during two invasions targeting the southern and central parts of the Gaza Strip. Al Qassam Brigades said that Mohaned Awwad, 23, Ibraheem Madi, 20 and Mohamed Abu Rizek, 23, three of the brigades’ fighters were killed during an army attack targeting the Khan Younis and Rafah areas in the southern part of the Gaza Strip…

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In Iraq, a Surge in U.S. Airstrikes
Military Says Attacks Save Troops’ Lives, but Civilian Casualties Elicit Criticism
Ernesto Londoño and Amit R. Paley, Washington Post Foreign Service
…In recent weeks, Katzenberger and other pilots have dramatically increased their use of helicopter-fired missiles against enemy fighters, often in densely populated areas. Since late March, the military has fired more than 200 Hellfire missiles in the capital, compared with just six missiles fired in the previous three months. The military says the tactic has saved the lives of ground troops and prevented attacks, but the strikes have also killed and wounded civilians….

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World Health Organization calls on Israel to lift Palestinian blockade
Stop The Siege on Gaza
The World Health Organisation on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding that Israel lift its blockade of the occupied Palestinian territories, which is blamed for a shortage of medicines. WHO members attending the organisation’s annual assembly here urged Israel to “reverse its policies and measures that have led to the prevailing dire health conditions and severe food and fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip”. The resolution was supported by 97 votes, while nine states rejected it and 11 abstained….

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A Nakba inherited
Rami Almeghari writing from occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine
At the southernmost area of the Gaza Strip, where the Philadelphia route separates the coastal enclave from Egypt, there are scores of knocked down buildings. The destruction dates back to 2002, when Israeli army bulldozers demolished the houses of the Palestinian inhabitants of this border line. Among the houses that used to stand here was that of Ali Shaath, a 75-year-old Palestinian refugee from the Beer al-Saba’ village of historical Palestine, the current site of the Israeli town of Beer Sheva…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 22 May 2008
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
In a dispatch posted at 11:44am Baghdad time Thursday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that the Association for the Defense of Journalistic Rights in Iraq announced that a television cameraman had been shot and killed by a US sniper in the al-’Ubaydi district of eastern Baghdad. The AMSI reported the Association as saying that Wisam ‘Ali ‘Awdah, a cameraman for the Afaq TV station was killed on Wednesday afternoon when a US sniper shot him as he was returning home in the al-’Ubaydi district, according to an account given by Khaz’al Ghazi, the supervisor of correspondents at the TV station…

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“Immoral Hazard” : Financial Instability, “Free Markets” and the Fed
A review of Jeremy Grantham’s book
Stephen Lendman
So says Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of Boston-based investment firm Grantham, Mayo and Van Otterloo, now known as GMO. Some call him the philosopher king of Wall Street because of his highly insightful views on markets and the economy, usually with a longer-term perspective. In a profession of touts, fast-buck and scam artists, Grantham’s commentaries are notably refreshing. They’re detailed, scholarly, sober, clear and especially important at a time of unparalleled excesses, great economic uncertainty, voices ranging from gloom and doom to blue skies and all clear ahead, so who knows what to believe. Few people sort things out better than he, and whether right or wrong, he makes consummate sense and should be taken seriously….

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Sistani flirting with Shiite militant message
HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against U.S.-led foreign troops is permissible — a potentially significant shift by a key supporter of the Washington-backed government in Baghdad. The edicts, or fatwas, by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani suggest he seeks to sharpen his long-held opposition to American troops and counter the populist appeal of his main rivals, firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia….

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