Palestine

Israel received an uncomfortable reminder of international anger over the Gaza war today when lawyers representing 16 Palestinians asked a London court to issue an arrest warrant for its defence minister, Ehud Barak, who is visiting Britain.

After a day of delays and legal wrangling the bid failed on the grounds that Barak enjoyed diplomatic immunity from prosecution. But the episode triggered a brief storm that is likely to give Israeli officials second thoughts about the risk of prosecution in foreign courts...

Furious Israeli officials insisted all day that he was protected by diplomatic immunity and could not be legally detained.

Israel pays lip-service to the two-state solution, while making it impossible
The Jewish state condemns illegal settlers but continues to take the Palestinians' land and to strangle their economy

On 2 August 2009, after cordoning off part of the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem, Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families (more than 50 people) from their homes; Jewish settlers immediately moved into the emptied houses. Although Israeli police cited a ruling by the country's supreme court, the evicted Arab families had been living there for more than 50 years. The event – which, rather exceptionally, did attract the attention of the world media – is part of a much larger and mostly ignored ongoing process.

For the winning punters chancing their luck at Hawaiian Gardens' charity bingo hall in the heart of one of California's poorest towns, the big prize is $500. The losers walk away with little more than an assurance that their dollars are destined for a good cause.

But the real winners and losers live many thousands of miles away, where the profits from the nightly ritual of numbers-calling fund what critics describe as a form of ethnic cleansing by extremist organisations.

Each dollar spent on bingo by the mostly Latino residents of Hawaiian Gardens, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, helps fund Jewish settlements on Palestinian land in some of the most sensitive areas of occupied East Jerusalem, particularly the Muslim quarter of the old city, and West Bank towns such as Hebron where the Israeli military has forced Arabs out of their properties in their thousands.

Israeli alarm is growing over Barack Obama's perceived tilt away from the Jewish state and towards its historic Arab foes. Whether this shift is merely tactical, and related to the peace process,or of longer-term strategic significance, is actively debated. But the White House's changing outlook will be on display on Thursday when the US leader embraces Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

Egypt's president is the authoritarian leader of a police state. While Obama symbolises equality, opportunity and democratic legitimacy, Mubarak represents an oligarchic ruling elite whose power is secured by a permanent state of emergency, arrest without trial, fear and torture. Human Rights Watch this week listed the systematic abuses that keep Mubarak in power.

Are tallitot just Judaeo-Israelite shmaghs?

And what would a One-Statist shmagh look like? Would it be a blue and white checked smagh? Or a black, white & green-striped tallit?

Some of the Israeli actions in Gaza these past weeks have been unconscionable; of that, there is no doubt. But let's not let Hamas off the hook entirely either. The civilians in Gaza are trapped between two intractable foes and suffer the consequences.

I mean, come on! Who hides weapons in a mosque? Crap like this is why Hamas shouldn't be let off the hook either.

All I can say is that I'm glad it's not just Al-Jazeera English talking about this sort of thing any more...

The following videos are a pretty good summary, from Al-Jazeera English, on the Gaza conflict.

Part 1

Part 2

As per Professor Juan Cole's public call, I'm posting the full text of this statement by several academics and lawyers, posted in the Times Of London.