Kwtia

Seymour Hersh writes in the New Yorker about Washington's joint planning with Israel and it's hope that Isreal's attack on Hizbullah will "serve as a prelude to a potential American preëmptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations"

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"It may well be that a war neurosis stirred up by propaganda of fear and hatred is the prelude to destruction."

John B. Orr

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The Israeli writer Yitzhak Laor writes in the LRB about "The power of the army to produce meanings, values, desire". Of "the cheapness of Arab blood" he says "Our usual way of looking at them is borrowed from our intelligence corps, who ‘translate’ them and interpret them, but cannot recognise them as human beings"

An important moment should be taken here to think how we all are guilty of dehumanising 'the enemy'...And how we can come to terms with our own worship of stereotypes and ingrained beliefs about Israelis...Or else we are just playing games...and the time for games is long past.

Laor goes further to say "We must remember the crimes of Olmert, and of our minister of justice, Haim Ramon, who championed the destruction of Lebanese villages after the ambush at Bint Jbeil, and of the army chief of staff, Dan Halutz. Their names should be submitted to The Hague so they can be held accountable." Who else should join them?

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A creepy opinion from a creepy man...With people like this in positions of power, there will never be peace...

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Gideon Levy writes in Ha'aretz that "there is the danger the IDF will want to restore its lost honor on the backs of the helpless Palestinians. It didn't work in Bint Jbail, so we'll show them in Nablus." He does however hope that because of the difficulties faced in Lebanon that "Seared by failure, maybe the IDF will be less enthusiastic to rush into battle." and that maybe they will finally (and we keep saying finally) come to understand the true power of negotiation and a just peace. But we will believe it when we see it, the Masters of War on all sides have gotten too used to their treats.

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Rami Khouri says: "On the two occasions that it has made resolutions on the basis of law and equal rights - the peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt - Israel has found calm, official acceptance and some normal contacts with citizens in those Arab lands. But in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, where Israel has acted unilaterally and in a predatory and violent way, it has reaped only resistance, ever more fierce and proficient with the years."

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Robert Fisk: As the 6am ceasefire takes effect... the real war begins

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Norway disinvests from Walmart for it's involvement in human and labour rights abuses, and does the same to Freeport because of it's terrible environmental record...not only that...here are all the Companies excluded from the investment universe :) They can use all the super-hero language they want, they earned it..anyone else Got Ethics?

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South Africa has an obesity epidemic because people don't want to look like they are HIV+...

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The Huffington Post says Bush Administration Knew About Liquid Explosive Threat, Yet Bush Still Calls It "New"