Palestinian rights group commends international activists
Electronic Intifada - 26 Aug 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rAs a Palestinian human rights organization, Al-Haq would like to send its warmest commendations to the human rights defenders involved in the feat of the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty breaking the blockade of the Gaza Strip. The crews made the 370-kilometer voyage from Larnaca port, Cyprus, in a symbolic gesture to highlight the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian kinship with Fatah hampers mediation
Electronic Intifada - 26 Aug 2008
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rCAIRO (IPS) – Following renewed fighting between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, Egypt has stepped up calls for dialogue and reconciliation. But critics say Cairo’s partiality to Fatah—which is backed, like the Egyptian regime itself, by the US —prevents it from mediating fairly in the crisis.

Ramattan reporter reaches Gaza on board the Liberty
Electronic Intifada - 26 Aug 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rTears filled the eyes of Ramattan News Agency’s Head of African Operations Hayyan Jubeh when he caught his first glimpse of the skyline on the coast of Gaza along the horizon of the Mediterranean Sea after a 37-hour voyage launched from Cyprus. Jubeh, 48, a Palestinian filmmaker from Jerusalem, is one of 44 international peace activists on board the ships. Sami Abu Salem writes from the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s weapon of house demolitions
Electronic Intifada - 26 Aug 2008
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThe four-story building in Beit Hanina, a Palestinian neighborhood a few miles north of East Jerusalem, was clearly home to wealth. As our carload of internationals pulled up the small street leading to Abu Majed Eisha’s house at around midnight I noticed several BMWs parked along the way. From what I had learned during my brief time in the West Bank, Palestine, I knew already that this was not going to be an ordinary house demolition. Jill Shaw writes from Beit Hanina.

Looking Back at Five Years of Bush’s Wreckage in Iraq
AlterNet: War on Iraq - 26 Aug 2008
Bush’s supporters see the global war on terrorism as a “clash of civilizations”—yet the civilization we are destroying in Iraq is part of our own.

Afghans to review US troops’ presence
Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) - 25 Aug 2008
Summary: The Afghan government will renegotiate the terms of US-led troops in the country after hundreds of civilians were killed in US strikes. source: Press TVread more

Iraq, U.S. clash over timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal
Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) - 25 Aug 2008
Summary: BAGHDAD ? Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said Monday there would be no security agreement between the United States and Iraq without an unconditional timetable for withdrawal? a direct challenge to the Bush administration, which insists that the timing for troop departure would be based on conditions on the ground. source: McClatchy Newspapersread more

How Georgia won the PR war
Media Workers Against War - 25 Aug 2008
The Guardian’s Peter Wilby has again hit the nail on the head: Whenever, to coin a phrase, a war breaks out in a faraway country of which we know little, I am reminded of a news editor I once worked for. He would go to a wall map showing the location of the paper’s correspondents, produce [...]