J-Street: “Our Message of Hope and Urgency”

As Israeli-Palestinian peace talks enter crunch time, we’re making clear that broad supports exists for bold peace moves.

Our ads in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other papers urge Netanayahu, Abbas, and Obama to make history now by freezing settlement growth, staying at the table, and giving talks a chance to succeed. > more.

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Iran ‘digging mass graves for US troops’ in case of invasion

Iran has dug mass graves in which to bury US troops if America attacks the country, a former commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard has said.

The digging of the graves appears to be a show of bravado after the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said last week that the US military had a contingency plan to attack Iran, although he thought a military strike was probably a bad idea. > more.
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The Mideast’s Nonviolent Moment

One of the most important books I read as a young adult was Martin Luther King Jr.’s Stride Toward Freedom. The book introduced me to nonviolent resistance—the commitment to change social evils while rejecting the temptation to use violence.

When Montgomery, Alabama’s African Americans began their protests, they didn’t call their approach by its philosophical names, nonviolent or passive resistance. “The phrase most often heard,” wrote King, “was ‘Christian Love.’ It was the Sermon on the Mount, rather than a doctrine of passive resistance, that initially inspired the Negroes of Montgomery to dignified social action. It was Jesus of Nazareth that stirred the Negroes to protest with the creative weapon of love.” > more.
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Eyewitnesses recount Israel flotilla raid

(CNN) — Some of the first accounts emerged Tuesday from eyewitnesses who were aboard several boats stormed by Israeli forces as they approached Gaza the day before.

Hanin Zoabi, a member of the Israeli parliament, was on board the Miva Marmara, the ship that was the scene of a confrontation between activists and Israeli soldiers. That clash left at least nine people dead.

The Israeli Navy fired on the ships five minutes before commandos descended from ropes that dangled from helicopters, Zoabi said during a press conference in Nazareth, Israel. She said passengers on board the ship were unarmed.  > more.

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Israel flotilla raid needs international inquiry, says UN chief

Ban Ki-moon suggests panel made up of many states to discover what happened, according to Netanyahu aide.

The UN secretary general has called for a multinational investigation of Israel’s raid on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine dead, an Israeli official said today. > more.

Read also:
> Turkey hosts Eurasian summit amid Israel storm
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Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range

Exclusive: Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times, autopsy results reveal.

Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.

Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today.> more.
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UN calls for inquiry into Israel flotilla attack

UN security council stops short of full condemnation after pro-Palestinian activists killed in botched Mavi Marmara raid.

The UN security council has called for an impartial investigation into Israel‘s botched assault on a flotilla carrying aid supplies to the GazaStrip, but it stopped short of an outright condemnation of the attack.

In a carefully worded compromise statement drafted after ten hours of debate, the security council also called for the immediate release of hundreds of civilians held after the raid. > more.

Read also: > Gaza aid flotilla: Israeli sabotage suspected
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Gaza flotilla drives Israel into a sea of stupidity

By Gideon Levy. Of course the peace flotilla will not bring peace, and it won’t even manage to reach the Gaza shore. The action plan has included dragging the ships to Ashdod port, but it has again dragged us to the shores of stupidity and wrongdoing.

The Israeli propaganda machine has reached new highs its hopeless frenzy. It has distributed menus from Gaza restaurants, along with false information. It embarrassed itself by entering a futile public relations battle, which it might have been better off never starting. They want to maintain the ineffective, illegal and unethical siege on Gaza and not let the “peace flotilla” dock off the Gaza coast? There is nothing to explain, certainly not to a world that will never buy the web of explanations, lies and tactics. > more.
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Deaths as Israeli forces storm Gaza aid ship

More than 10 people have been killed after Israeli commandos stormed a convoy of ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army says.

Armed forces boarded the vessels overnight, clashing with some of the 600 protesters on board.

The incident happened about 40 miles (64 km) out to sea, in international waters. > more.
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Palestinians mark ‘Nakba’ with tears and questions

Claudette Habesch stood at the gate of what had once been her family house, tears in her eyes as she pointed to the garden shaded by a large date palm.

“It was beautiful, a lot of fun, a lot of happiness,” she said, recalling an Arab childhood spent in Jerusalem before her family fled in 1948.
“(Then) there was the foundation of the state of Israel – on my own homeland, on my own home.” > more.

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Defense Minister: Israel needs to recognize the occupation must end

Israel must recognize that the world will not put up with decades more of Israeli rule over the Palestinian people, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in unusually frank remarks Monday.

Barak’s comments came against the backdrop of severe friction between the U.S. and Israel’s hawkish government over an impasse in peacemaking.

“The world isn’t willing to accept – and we won’t change that in 2010 – the expectation that Israel will rule another people for decades more,” he said. “It’s something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.” > more.

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Blessed are the Peacemakers

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus gives us a number of statements beginning with the words, “Blessed are the…..” These are often referred to as the Beatitudes which are not only memorable but often considered counter-intuitive, a proposition that seems likely to be not true based on personal understanding or intuition. > more.

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