Israel to World: "Suck It."

The potential for a dignified debate goes out the window when Juan Cole and Neve Gordon get trotted out at reputable sources, but sure, enjoy your echo chamber.

juan cole is pretty chill, i thought you were talking about chomsky

Okay so let me get this straight. The PA and Hamas don't get along and that's why Israel restricts movement between the West Bank and Gaza because... they are protecting them from violently attacking each other. Again so nice.

No, obviously they restrict movement between the West Bank and Gaza because they don't want Fajr-5 rockets launched from Ramallah directly into the Western Wall.

Hahahaha whatever. You guys are hilarious.

please do enlighten me on the true puppetmasters

new hamas perfume

http://paltimes.net/new/images/uploads/122012/re_1354801194.jpg

Israel reportedly threatens to cancel Gaza truce if Islamic Jihad heads enter Strip

EU clarifies: No intention to boycott settlement products

I guess EU is really attached to their Sodastream products.

so that is true?

about sodastream?

The EU's highest court ruled in 2010 that Sodastream was not entitled to claim a "Made in Israel" exemption from EU customs payments because of the companies' primary manufacturing plant location outside of Israel in the Israeli-occupied territories West Bank settlement of Mishor Adumim.[56][57][58]
Sodastream has been criticized for operating a manufacturing plant on land in the West Bank by the Israeli non-governmental organizations Coalition of Women for Peace[59] and Peace Now,[60] as well as other human rights organizations.[61]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishor_Adumim

huh

Meshal welcomed by Hamas PM Haniyeh and Fatah representatives on his first-ever visit to the Strip; Meshal to reporters: I ask God to give me martyrdom one day on this land.

i was thinking about maybe starting a rolling middle east 2013 thread in january and moving all my syria/israel/gaza/west bank/egypt/iran/iraq/etc chat over there and i was wondering what ppl on this thread think. i know hurting has been asking for a new thread to talk about israel and i think having a more catchall rolling thread could help lead to more coherent discussion on the region as opposed to balkanized conversation over a dozen or so threads... idk, what do people think?

yes i think that's a good idea.

you might as well start it now. roll out the '13s like a car dealership!

why can i never locate binladenthumbsup.jpg when i truly need it?

sounds like a good idea to me

xp

don't know if we're ready for a two-thread solution

Meshal holds a parade:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/world/middleeast/khaled-meshal-hamas-leader-delivers-defiant-speech-on-anniversary-celebration.html

I think a lot of media have covered what Meshal said and it's hard to sugarcoat the meaning of his speech, but I think this is representative of some of the frustration about coverage re Hamas: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/12/hamas-moderate-leader-promises-to.html

Beinart says Obama dngaf anymore:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/10/why-obama-will-ignore-israel.html

Contrary to reports in the Israeli press, Team Obama didn’t mastermind the angry European response.

huh

idk, i didn't see any such reports

i wonder what he means by "israeli press". i'd assume israel has its own breitbart/nypost/dailymail zone but idk hebrew so i wouldn't be able to get into it.

Time to sell Israel a buncha bombs

http://mobile.defensenews.com/article/312100010

Iran’s air force commander said Tuesday that the distance between Iran and Israel is the maximum range that Tehran requires its missiles fly. Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh made the statement in response to a US intelligence report revealed last week that claimed Tehran is no longer on track to achieve an intercontinental missile by 2015.

“We don’t need missiles with more than a 2,000-kilometer range, even though have the technology to build them,” Hajizadeh told reporters. “Israel is our longest-range target.”

NYT:

Correction: December 7, 2012

An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the effect of planned Israeli development in the area known as E1 on access to the cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem from Jerusalem, and on the West Bank. Such development would limit access to Ramallah and Bethlehem to only narrow corridors far from the Old City and downtown Jerusalem. It would also create a large block of Israeli settlements in the center of the West Bank; it would not divide the West Bank in two.

Because of an editing error, the article referred incompletely to the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state. Critics see E1 as a threat to the meaningful contiguity of such a state state because it would leave some Palestinian areas connected to one another by roads with few exits or by circuitous routes; the proposed development would not, technically, make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.

To be fair, there's only one country that's been talking incessantly about bombing Iran to deter.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/10/obamas-crystal-clear-promise-to-stop-iran-from-getting-a-nuclear-weapon/262951/ ?

lieberman to resign!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D1O8enuvvg4/UMtnEnL17uI/AAAAAAAASag/48odqwUoeC4/s1600/pewpoll.png

this guy is running for knesset:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAwSMPhLAKo&feature=youtu.be

haaretz front page:

Palestinian poll: Hamas' Haniyeh would win PA presidency over Abbas

http://forward.com/articles/167832/israel-approves--more-settlement-homes-in-east/

The Head of the Gaza Border Agency, Maher Abu-Sabha, has refused entry to the EU Mission charged with monitoring the border with Egypt at Rafah. The Mission was planning to return to Gaza after an absence of six years.

Speaking to a Palestinian newspaper, Abu-Sabha insisted that the Rafah Crossing is Palestinian and is under absolute Palestinian sovereignty. "There is no need for an EU mission in Rafah," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/18/irans-state-run-news-network-blames-israeli-death-squads-for-sandy-hook-shooting/

if you go to the original and then read the comments you will probably just want to give up on the world

middle east media can be pretty psychotic

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kv-2hb4JCic/UNMrE_NXaDI/AAAAAAAASzI/LtPki2XNiuM/s1600/The+Jerusalem+Website-101215.png

http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/12/iranian-computers-attacked-by-new-malicious-data-wiper-program/

i am the viper, i've come to vipe your vindows

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/israelis-shoot-nra-claim-article-1.1226401

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/24/israeli-pm-aims-to-deport-tens-of-thousands-of-africans/

(...) aims to repatriate tens of thousands of African illegal migrants (...)

http://i.imgur.com/dsTSB.gif

i am the viper, i've come to vipe your vindows

― before and after broscience (goole), Friday, December 21, 2012 5:54 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

knowing is half the battle

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/150445/Poll%3A-HaBayit-HaYehudi-Gaining-on-Labor-for-Second-Place.html